


Vigilante

by Blood And Bites (godrics_quill22), godrics_quill22



Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF Bonnie Bennett, Bamon, Brotherly Love, Child Abuse, Comfort/Angst, Crime, Damon Salvatore being Damon Salvatore, Dark Past, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, Loss, Loss of Virginity, Love, Minor Character Death, Minor Original Character(s), Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Not Suitable/Safe For Work, Past Abuse, Past Relationship(s), Past Torture, Past Violence, Physical Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Damon Salvatore, Resolved Sexual Tension, Romance, Sex, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, Stefan is married to Caroline, Suspense, The Originals - Freeform, Triggers, Vaginal Sex, Verbal Abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 23:35:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 42,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29197704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/godrics_quill22/pseuds/Blood%20And%20Bites, https://archiveofourown.org/users/godrics_quill22/pseuds/godrics_quill22
Summary: When Stefan and Caroline’s daughter is kidnapped, Caroline can trust only one person to find her and Stefan can only trust one.
Relationships: Bonnie Bennett/Damon Salvatore, Caroline Forbes/Stefan Salvatore, Matt Donovan/Rebekah Mikaelson
Comments: 40
Kudos: 46





	1. Carry Off

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER:
> 
> This is a fictional literary work of the Vampire Diaries TV show. I have no legal right to these characters and as such am not exploiting them for monetary benefits. I write them only for fun.
> 
> TVD AU with a spin of the novel On Her Guard by Beverly Barton.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Character Glossary for Chapter One.**
> 
> —• Stefan Salvatore- Brother to Damon, husband to Caroline, father to Sage: Vampire.
> 
> —• Caroline Salvatore- wife to Stefan, best friend of Bonnie, mother of Sage: Vampire.
> 
> —• Sage- adopted daughter of Caroline and Stefan: Human.
> 
> —• Matt Donovan- boyfriend of Rebecca Mikaelson, head of the kidnap team: Human.

The guard didn’t even realize what was happening. It was a cruel way to go— not knowing.

Lurking in the shadows, the intruder invaded the Salvatore mansion one guard post at a time. It was just his luck that Stefan Salvatore —in a bid to convince people that he was a human which he obviously wasn’t,— had chosen humans to guard the oldest building in Mystic Falls which also happened to belong to the Salvatore brothers.

As the lifeless body of this guard slumped to the floor, Matt Donovan carefully wiped his dagger clean and signaled the other four mercenaries who were with him to move along in a silent “clear”.

Time was of the essence and everything about their infiltration was planned to the barest minute.

His orders were simple. Grab the child and leave immediately out of town. No slugging. They had to pick a night they knew the Salvatores —Stefan And his wife Caroline— were not at home because if they had been, the smell of blood from the first throat they slit upon entrance would have alerted the vampires of their presence.

Whatever happened tonight, Matt knew he had to succeed. It was the first time Klaus had allowed him to lead a mission and one as important as this, nonetheless. The fact that he had gotten together with Klaus’ sister behind his boss’s back, and lived to be put on this mission was suspicious to say the least.

Klaus either expected him to die on this mission or he was expecting him to fail and return so he can finish him himself without upsetting Rebecca too much.

Seamlessly, the five mercenaries worked, taking down the guards one by one without triggering any alarm systems and alerting any of the live-in servants.

They had studied the blueprints of the Mansion for months to ensure the success of this particular mission.

And then finally they saw the door in question. It was the room of the newest addition to the Salvatore family. Stefan’s adopted daughter, Sage.

The human girl had taken a sudden liking to Caroline the first day they met and the blonde vampire had been just as enamored by the little girl. At that point, there really was nothing Stefan could say about the matter.

In any case, if the rumors were true, Stefan Salvatore lived a very demure, peaceful life with his young wife who practically had him wrapped around her little finger. The almost 200 year old vampire was at the beck and call of his wife and did nothing that would upset her: including, others might argue, adopting a child he wasn’t really ready to cater for.

Sneaking through the shadows, the mercenaries took out the two guards that stood at the door of Sage Salvatore’s door easily and Matt slid into the room with as little ease as possible.

The child was sleeping. She was just seven years old, from the mission data they had been given— and she looked so peaceful, for just a split second, Matt allowed himself to feel sorry for her.

_Klaus had no qualms about killing this innocent child if his demands are not met, Matt was sure of that._

It was just a few seconds though, because that was all he could afford, before pressing the rag filled with chloroform onto the child’s face. There was barely any struggle, which just upset him further.

As a mercenary, the job is better when the victim accepts their fate and does not struggle. However, perhaps Rebecca’s dream of having a quite life with family and children, no matter how impossible that dream sounds, was starting to make him soft.

He pushed aside all thoughts of right or wrong and picked up the girl in just her pajamas, flinging her onto his shoulder and hurrying out of the room.

The other members of his team saw him appear and took it as a cue that everything went well before they started to retreat, one by one with Matt following right after them.

They snuck out of the house the same way they came in and a few minutes later, they were driving their van through Mystic Falls and heading to New Orleans, where they would hand over the child to the Mikaelsons.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO

At 1:56am exactly, Stefan Salvatore’s life came to a standstill.

The minutes that led up to that did not matter as much. He had been on his way from a Founding family meeting at the Lockwood’s mansion with Caroline. 

It had been a fun night and they found themselves gossiping about the night’s happenings on the way home.

About 800 meters away from the edge of their property, their laughter stopped, both of them looking at each other with recognition: blood.

The scent of blood hung pungent in the air and fear started to build in their chest. Never had a few meters drive felt so long and never had sitting in a car made him feel like he was wasting precious time.

He had barely parked the car when Caroline went flying through the door. Her fear must be the same as his.

He supersped quickly after his wife and barely had enough time to register the sight of blood before his eyes before his wife’s scream tore through the halls of the house.

He was by her side in an instant, his fears realized in the same.

Sage was gone.

And as much as he had softened to the idea of being a father, started to love his adopted daughter of a year, the knowledge that Caroline still does not handle loss well, was what halted his world on its axis.

**1:56am.**

Caroline’s scream had woken the servants up and the house was bustling with energy and wails of despair as they watched the bloodied bodies of their friends.

“She’s alive. She’s alive.” He whispered as he held his wife’s trembling body in his arms, reassuring her. “I swear it... I’m going to get our daughter back.” He said.

It was only then that his wife turned into him, her face tucked into the shirt of his suit, weeping uncontrollably as she clung to him.

“I’m going to get our baby back.” He reiterated, holding her closer.

5 minutes.

In less than five minutes, his wife’s laughing face had turned into one gripped with sorrow, her body had trembled with humors before and now, she was trembling in abject pain and sorrow.

What a fickle thing life was. 

Caroline had to mourn.

She learned that from when her mother died that turning off your emotions when the pain became unbearable only put the pain on hold.

She wasn’t going to be weak. She was a mother. And she had sworn to her child she will always protect her and that is what she will do.

Several minutes later, she sat on her daughter’s bed, cradling her phone in her hand as she dialed the number of the one person she knew would be there for her, painfully aware of Stefan’s worry for her.

She couldn’t reach Bonnie directly so she left a message, sure in her spirit that Bonnie Bennett, her best friend who was also her resident witch for everything, and also the godmother of Sage, would be there as soon as she received the message.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

At the break of dawn, when Caroline finally fell into sleep —albeit fitfully— in Sage’s bed, Stefan pulled slowly away from his wife and moved to the window. 

Half a world away, Stefan pulled his phone away from his pocket and made a call to a private number, leaving a message for Mr. Kaleb Jones. 

He trusted Bonnie with his life and trusted her with Caroline’s but Sage was the embodiment of his and Caroline’s sanity and there was only one man he could trust with that.


	2. Virtue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonnie—

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Character glossary for chapter Two.**
> 
> —• Bonnie Bennett- best friend of Caroline, past love of Damon, roommate of Luca: Witch.
> 
> —• Luka Martin- friend and roommate of Bonnie Bennett: Witch.
> 
> —• Sheila Bennett- Grandmother of Bonnie, raised her: Witch. Dead.
> 
> —• Abigail Bennett- Mother of Bonnie. Dead: Human.
> 
> Rudy Hopkins- Father of Bonnie. Dead: Human.

Bonnie Bennett was fond of a lot of things.

Mystic Falls was not one of them.

28 years ago, she had been born to Abigail Bennett and Rudy Hopkins in Mystic Falls but since they had both proven to Sheila Bennett that they were incapable of being parents due to their individual —and collective— selfishness, her grandmother had taken her away from her parents out of Mystic Falls to California where she lived and practiced magic.

According to the story, her parents hadn’t even put up a fight. They were so glad the weight of responsibility had been taken off of them and inadvertently freed them from living a careful life.

They —almost as soon as Abigail recovered from childbirth— had resumed their life of partying and merrymaking.

Sheila had raised her well to the best of her abilities and when the time had cone for her dormant witch gene to kickstart into active, her grandmother had been there to walk her through the nights of sleepwalking and waking up in weird places she didn’t have any memory of getting to.

The woman had nursed her, nurtured her into the fine witch she was and always spoke the truth to her —sometimes a bit too candidly.

So she had had an easier time believing her grandmother when she had told her that her parents had practically abandoned her. For a few moments she wanted to be angry at her grams for pulling her away from her parents before they had the chance to fully change and love her.

But that thought was suddenly replaced by a sense of thanksgiving and relief. 

Relief that her grams had taken her away before her parents could abandon her. If she was being honest with herself, she would agree that it was only a matter of time before the two of them would have abandoned her.

As part of her rite of passage, when she was eighteen Sheila Bennett had sat her down and told her about Mystic Falls.

It wasn’t just the place of her birth and where her parents had lived till their untimely —and unsurprising— deaths. It was her heritage and her history.

It was the place that held all the puzzle pieces to her life, her magic.

Her ancestors lived and died there; pure, untapped magic resided in that town and only a Bennett witch had the power to tap into that power.

**She had to visit.**

And so she had— and what a shit show that had turned out to be.

The two weeks she spent in Mystic Falls at eighteen years, set the ball rolling for the next few years of her life and were a part of her history that she wished she could forget.

She had lost too much back then.

It had taken a lot for her to accept Luka into her life.

Eight years ago, when she was still walking around like a shell of herself, she had met him in a bar in town.

He was a witch, just like her and after gentle probing, he had wormed his way into her life —but never managed to make it through the barriers around her heart.

Whatever haunted her was potent, living and breathing.

“There was a call for you earlier.” Luka opened his door to say. The two lived in the same apartment complex. It was a wide space with two rooms but they shared the kitchen and sitting area. For the most part they kept out of each other’s lives and got together when the issue was magic related.

“From who?” Bonnie asked, her brow creased in curiosity. Who was it that didn’t call her on her mobile but rather on the telephone in the apartment she shared with Luka?

“I think it was your best friend— you know, the one in Mystic Falls.” Luka mumbled. He wasn’t so sure about it because when the woman had called she had been sobbing and dropped the call almost immediately. He didn’t want to pry and definitely didn’t want to worry Bonnie by telling her about the crying woman especially since it could be by now, the crisis had passed.

Bonnie’s face creased into a full-on frown. “Caroline?” That’s confusing. She reached for her phone, wondering why the vampire hadn’t called her on her cell phone and discovered the device was off. He didn’t know how long it had been off but nodded a thank you to Luca and went to her room.

She plugged in the phone and stripped out of her clothes, waiting for the mandatory five minutes before the phone lit up to signal some kind of power boost.

“Hey Carr.” She called over the phone when the call was answered.

“Bonnie, oh my god Bonnie!” Caroline’s gasp of relief was felt all the way through the phone.

“What’s wrong?” Because if Luca’s pensive look hadn’t convinced her that something was wrong, hearing Caroline’s shaky breaths over the phone was enough convincing.

“I need you Bon.” It was quiet. It was soft. And it was definitely a plea.

“Calm down and tell me what’s wrong?” The witch was perked up now. She had been out handling some rogue witches and was severely drained both of magic and of energy. The big plan had been to fall straight asleep when she got home but she doubted she would be able to rest now. “Is it Stefan?” She ventured when Caroline seemed to be having a hard time explaining what was wrong.

“It’s my baby.” The vampire sobbed. A wretched sound.

“I’m on my way.” Bonnie says and hang up the call.

There was no arguing that and no decision left to make. She did not care if Sage just had the case of a bad flu— if Caroline was worried, that’s where she was going to be.

**Mystic Falls.**

If there was a way to not go back to that town, she would avoid it. 

Caroline knew. Of course Caroline knew. The girls had met when they were kids. Sometimes it was a surprise to her that they had managed to be friends till this very day.

Bonnie was living with her grandmother in a California at the time and Caroline’s father happened to be their next door neighbor. The blond girl had come over for her first vacation at age 5 and the friendship had started.

Twice every year, for six weeks, Caroline visited her father and twice every year for six weeks, a severely antisocial Bonnie had a girl friend.

Caroline was the first one she told about her magic abilities after her grams had told her about them and she had been the first person Caroline had confided in when she had become a vampire at age 18.

Caroline was also the only living person —her grandmother having been the only other person— who knew about what happened to her in the summer of her eighteenth birthday when she went to Mystic Falls.

And so— if Caroline said she _needed_ her in Mystic Falls, it must be dire. Dire enough for her best friend to ask her to venture into a place she had sworn never to go back to. A place Caroline had told her never to come back to no matter what.

She had even been excused from the wedding, only joining in via Skype and sending a few magic enchantments to make the celebration as magical as the bride was.

She was too afraid to consider what the issue was.

Shaking, scared, she stepped into the sitting room to see Luka leaning on the kitchen island, duffel bag on the island and eyes peering into her.

“Luka—“ she choked out. She hadn’t planned to sound so weak.

“I’m coming with you.” The other witch deadpanned. “There is no way I’m letting you go somewhere you hate being, without back up. And if I wasn’t convinced before, after seeing the look on your face, there is nothing you can say or do to convince me to stay behind.”

She opened her mouth to say something but stopped, simply saying; “Thank you.”

Feeling energized with the knowledge that Luka was coming with her, Bonnie went into her room and packed a bag of her necessities. Clothes didn’t matter because she could always borrow some of Caroline’s.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

An hour and a half later, Luka sat beside a sleeping Bonnie on the flight, filled with worry as he watched the witch obviously caught in a nightmare.

He never really asked her about her aversion to Mystic Falls and why she wouldn’t go back even though there was a reservoir of power just _waiting_ for her to tap into it.

He shook her gently, waking her up from her slumber and for a minute, saw her. Her broken self, tears brimming in her wide eyes. The same way she had looked when he had met her eight years ago.

But just as quickly, she’s blinked and collected herself, muttering a hasty thank you.

The trip from the airport to the Salvatore Mansion was a tedious one. Bonnie’s fingers fidgeted in her lap for the entire drive. She shut her eyes, not wanting to see the town.

She didn’t want to see a building and trigger a memory. When the car took the curve that sent them through the woods, she finally opened her eyes to see the expanse of land that belonged to the Salvatore family. The whole estate was large to say the least and the trees bent onto the path cleared between them, as though bowing in welcome.

It was beautiful —

_Just as beautiful as it had been when she was here eight years ago, if not more._

“Bonnie!!! Bonnie oh my God you came I’m so sorry!!” A sobbing Caroline was in her best friend’s arms the moment Bonnie walked through the thick mahogany front doors.

“Hey that’s nothing you should worry about. I’m here and tell me what happened with my goddaughter.” Bonnie reassured her. She could not let Caroline worry about her, not while she was herself, in this state.

“She— they— oh god.” The blonde sobbed.

“We had a meeting in town last night. It was the annual founders day after party for the founding family. Upon return we noticed 9 of our guards dead and 2 in critical condition.” Stefan, a calmer, collected one of the two, answered.

If Bonnie didn’t know better, she would think Stefan was not shaken by the loss of his child but she did. His voice was calm —just as it had been ten years ago when she met him— but his entire body seemed to be humming with unbridled pain and anger. 

“And Sage was not in her bed!” Caroline gasped to continue from where Stefan had left off before Bonnie could ask what that had to do with Sage.

“Yes. We still don’t know what happened but we believe she’s alive.” Stefan says calmly once more.

Bonnie smiled with a strength she didn’t feel, at Stefan, and slowly pried Caroline’s crying form off her. She held her best friend at arm’s length away and waited for Caroline to look at her. “Hey— I’m not gonna say cheer up because even I can’t cheer up.” She shook her head when Caroline took a break from her crying to give her an apologetic look. “But you know there’s no one better than me at location spells and she’s my goddaughter so you can rest assured I’m going to find her.” Even if it kills her. She wasn’t just going to do it because Caroline needed her to do it, Bonnie **had** to do it.

“Bonnie—“ Caroline whispered.

“Remember what you told me when you named me her godmother?” She chuckled with, the sound seeming foreign to her ears because she had to force it out. “You said at some point when she’s a teenager she’s going to either leave home because she found out you two are vampires or because she got tired of you being so high strung all the time and it’ll be convenient if I would be able to locate her and be with her till she was ready to come home.”

“I’m so mean.” Caroline couldn’t help but say, but she momentarily stopped crying.

“Well, I took it to heart so believe me when I say this— I’m going to find her no matter where she is.” It hung in the air. The silent _dead or alive._

“Thank you so much. Having you here is soothing beyond what you can imagine.” Caroline confided, hugging her friend properly this time. Without as many tears as before.

“Great. I like how honest you are when telling me I’m convenient to have around.” Bonnie responded, her palms rubbing soothingly up and down the vampire’s back.

“That’s not what I meant.” Caroline says, her voice slightly muffled.

“That’s what it sounded like to me.” The witch teased.

Caroline pulled back to apologize, then saw the grin on Bonnie’s face before squinting accusatorially at her best friend. “Are you messing with me, Bonnie Bennett?”

“Maybe. Now get off your butt and go make me some tea. I’m going to need a fresh batch of it and it should be made by you, no one else.” The witch chuckled, then shook her head to quiet Stefan who was ready to jump to his wife’s defense.

“Alright. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Caroline says and then spots Luca. “Hey Luka. Welcome to our home— I’ll bring you a cup of tea too so make yourself comfortable.”

“She needs to get active.” Bonnie explained when Caroline was out of the room. Sure the vampire would be able to hear them, she waved her hand around in a silent enchantment to stop sound from going out. “You know your wife best. Taking care of things, handling them, getting busy and making sure everything is going well, is her safety place. She’s a control freak and her baby being kidnapped is her having a variable she can’t control. The best way to stabilize her is to give her several other things that she **can** control.” She explained.

“That makes sense.” Stefan agreed.

“Now, go with Luka.” She released the silencing charm. “Get me an item closest to Sage. Perhaps her pillow or a cuddle toy she’s fond of. The closest the item is to her, the better.” Bonnie ordered the man. Later, much later, she would wonder if he remembered her or if her face had gotten lost in the sea of faces he met back then.

“Thank you.” Stefan says, sincerely.

“You don’t need to.” And that much was true. “It’s my duty to my goddaughter and I won’t have it any other way.” Bonnie spares him a small smile before pushing Luca towards the man.

She watched them leave before her knees gave out under her.

This house.

The floors.

The walls.

Everything was the same and she was having a hard time just standing here— she imagined the next few days will be more jarring now and she needed to steel herself over it but right now, right now she just allowed this moment of weakness.

She buried her face in her palms, fighting tears that threatened to spill. She told herself she needed to be strong for Caroline. For her goddaughter.

“Bonnie..?” Caroline tapped her best friend on the shoulder and smiled at her. She had stood in the doorway for five minutes, hoping Bonnie would have the strength to pull herself together but the longer she stood there, the more convinced she was that if she didn’t step in, Bonnie would just spiral.

They were both so pitiful and if the tea hadn’t threatened to get cold, perhaps she would have given the witch more time to — to what? Wallow? She sighed.

“Hey.” Bonnie’s voice was cheerier than normal. “Wow that was quick. Whoever knew you were a British at heart.” She teased, successfully shoving her emotions behind that black door in her mind she wanted to keep shut forever. “Hey, I need some things from you. I only brought a grimoire and nothing else. Is there a witch shop in town I can get some of the things from?”

“Right!” Caroline perked up. “I can send someone to get them for you.”

“No. I want to go myself. With you.” Bonnie took a sip of her tea and discovered it wasn’t so hot. A brow arched in question to which Caroline merely shrugged.

“But what if—?” She started to ask.

“Stefan’s here and we’ll only be gone a few minutes. Plus, you’re the best at spotting quality and I need the very best for this spell.” Bonnie cut through her question. She had only packed toiletries and her grimoire and left all the things she’ll need for a spell like candles and cascarilla powder.

Bonnie said it firmly, but Caroline heard clearly the plea within her words: _“please go with me. I can’t go into town by myself. I’m still too scared.”_

She smiled, nodding vigorously at the brunette. “You got yourself a trip!”


	3. Vice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Damon—

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Character Glossary for Chapter 3.**
> 
> —• Damon Salvatore- brother to Stefan, brother-in-law of Caroline, ex lover of Bonnie: Vampire.

Damon Salvatore hid in the groves waiting for some kind of signal to show that he was safe to go out.

His latest cover had been blown to bits.

He has always been hot tempered and very intolerant of fools and people who wanted to take advantage of him but he usually tried to do his business with a little more tolerance than he did today.

It had been a negotiations gig. His job was to do the convincing— pretty easy to do when you have an ace up your sleeve that no one knew of. His foolproof plan of compelling difficult people into being the most agreeable people in the world, had earned him quite the reputation.

In those circles —crime and arms— he was known as _El Veloz_ meaning “the Swift” although over the years he had used several names and disguises to keep people from discovering his real identity.

One name he always went back to, was Kaleb Jones.

Calm and collected was his brand but right now, hiding in the bushes of a small forest area in Jakarta, Indonesia, he was beginning to wonder if it was time for him to retire now.

Thoughts of retirement have been making their way into his head for some years now no matter what he did about them and there have been mummers through the gangs about how he managed to stay alive after all these years of doing this.

After leaving the military in 1932, Damon had made it his personal vendetta to go after all the people who had wronged him, fighting for the families of his comrades who had fallen in battle.

That was when the nickname had started. Stories were told of how quick he was, how swiftly he had killed his victims and how mangled most of the bodies were upon discovery.

In later years, when he started to make money off the name he had acquired for himself chasing a just path, he had chosen to exclude the killing in his services and just accept negotiations jobs.

He had also made sure to spread it through the grapevine that his master —the first and Original El Veloz— had died and a new El Veloz had taken his place.

And still, that was almost thirty years ago so it was normal for people to wonder about his ageless face.— because no disguise can hide youth.

He considered faking his death once again but the option of retiring held more appeal to him.

He thought, maybe he should settle down— find what his younger brother Stefan had found—. Get married, adopt kids and live a quiet bucolic life in the countryside. That is, if his soul wasn’t too marred with the blood of those he had killed; some with a weapon and some, his bare hands had torn into their chest and pulled their hearts out, or chopped their heads off.

He sighed.

He was fidgeting with his daylight ring again. Something he did when he was in deep thought.

Perhaps it was sexual frustration. A part of his brain provided. It had to be something. It wasn’t everyday that a slap on the cheek provoked him to the point of snapping someone’s neck.

He had been careful with his disguises so that no two people can describe him in the same way but today, he had been ambushed by a group — an armed gang of tattooed freaks.

And he had snapped.

Literally. And killed the woman of the gang leader. He didn’t like the feeling of being boxed in. It was one of the reasons why he didn’t move back to his home town Mystic Falls. Because people suffocate him more than tight places did.

Guns had been pointed at him in a jiffy and his survival instincts, after decades of honing them— sparked bright. Shifting out of the way, he moved just in time to avoid several bullets that were aimed at him and in the same breath, he was holding the still beating, bloody and warm hearts of two people.

Realization dawned on him at the same time horror filled the room and moved it to silence. The only sound that was heard was the sound of the two lifeless bodies falling to the ground in a loud thud.

Their eyes filled with horror, Damon felt his transformation into a monster start. The veins under his eyes expanding as a rush a blood spread through him.

_Yes his cover was blown alright._

But if he was going down, he was going swinging.

And with that thought in mind he had wiped out an entire gang of fifty three men. One had escaped from the looks of it but that was one man too many so he had chased after him and made sure to drain him dry.

The most upsetting part about killing so ruthlessly to survive, was that he didn’t got any of that fresh blood to drink so when he caught up to the last man, he had taken his time to drain him till nothing came when he sucked.

When nightfall came, he made his way into the hotel he was lodging out and knew he should be out of there by dawn.

He pulled out his phone, reading a message from Stefan asking him to call him back urgently that was directed to him by the front desk, and dialed his brother’s number to call.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

Stefan stood in his room, eyes looking straight ahead through the curtains without really seeing anything. He had left a message for Damon to reach him back immediately but knowing his brother, that could stretch between now and two months depending on the nature of his current job.

The local authorities had been involved and it had taken all the power and influence he had, to convince them to handle the case as merely a multiple homicide case without the kidnapping.

His hand fumbled with a piece of paper in his pocket. He knew what was written on it by heart now: _[We will call you with our demands soon. Involve any hunters and the child dies.]_

He had seen the note after Caroline had dozed off that night and was happy that she hadn’t noticed it lying atop the sheets in the midst of her hysteria.

Vampires.

He was sure the perpetrators were vampires or some other kind of supernatural creature and that meant the police getting involved was not going to solve anything. It was most likely going to make things worse.

That left only Damon as his hope.

He hated being this weak but in the moment, his concern was for Caroline and leaving her would not be good. Besides, turning his humanity off just to trigger his ripper side without trying all available avenues, was just not right.

He sighed for what felt like the umpteenth time that day.

When his phone rung, he quickly answered it, his relief evident in the way he said his brother’s name. “Damon—“

“Stefan... what’s wrong?” The older brother asked, never been one to beat around the bush.

“Sage has been kidnapped.” Stefan gave just as straightforward a response as he knew his brother will appreciate.

“My God!” Damon broke character then. Stefan had confided in him before they adopted the child. His little brother’s fear was that he wouldn’t be able to protect the child. Or that he would be killed before his time— or worse, he would go off on a bloodlust rampage and drain his own child dry. Hearing this was like a realization of Stefan’s fears and he could only imagine how he was feeling.

“They took her from her own bed.” Stefan’s broken voice sounded over the other end of the phone. “They killed 9 of our guards and two are currently injured and fighting for their lives in the hospital.”

“I— Do you have any idea who—“ He stammered.

“None. But I’m a Salvatore and over the years I’ve amassed a ton of enemies for myself so—“ The self blame was starting.

“Don’t start blaming yourself now, Stefan.” Damon berated, cutting through his brother’s remorse.

“Damon, I think they’re vampires.” Stefan confided. It felt good to finally say it out loud.

“How do you know?”

“They left a note saying we must not involve hunters. A weird request considering the better choice will be to ask that the local cops would not be involved.”

“Yeah I get that. Which means they probably know about us.” Damon thought out loud.

“Yes.” His brother agreed. A pause. And then. “Can you—?”

“You think anything can stop me from coming home when you need me? I’ll be there in 24 hours time maximum. I’m currently in Jakarta and it’ll take some time.” Damon wasn’t going to say it, but if they were vampires the chances that they came for Stefan, were just as high as the chances of them using Stefan to get to him. He was after all, the one who lived a reckless life. It was the reason why he didn’t go home often and didn’t leave any trace from himself to his brother. His fear was that someone found out anyway.

“Thank you.” Stefan muttered.

“You don’t need to. You’d do the same for me.” Damon tried for a lighter tone.

“Yeah, if you actually manage to settle down.” He didn’t know where the energy to tease his brother came from, but Stefan teased Damon. Knowledge that Damon was coming to help, was already lifting his spirits.

“I might just surprise you.” The older vampire responded before dropping the call.

_He had a flight to catch._

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

Settling down.

Damon thought about that. Retiring and living the life of a recluse was one thing. Retiring to settle down was another and that thought was new to him.

In all his life, only twice had he thought about that. 

Once when he was still human, when he had loved a feisty vampire almost 200 years ago. _Katherine._

For more than a century and half he only loved Katherine. No matter how many times he met women and how often he engaged in sex, Katherine was burned on his heart like a scar from a soldering iron.

And then 10 years ago, that changed.

“My shiela...” he whispered to himself, sitting in the first class cabin. There was one other person in there with him but he wasn’t paying much attention to them.

His Sheila, virgin and full of virtue— with the brightest smile he had seen and the purest soul he had encountered. 

She was the mistake he wished he could make over and over and over again.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

“Stefan’s brother is coming to join in the search for Sage.” Caroline informed Bonnie as she set another cup of tea down for the witch. All day yesterday and through the night, Bonnie had tried spell after spell but they couldn’t locate Sage. Her trail seems to always hit an invisible shield when she got to the border of Mystic Falls.

26 hours later and Bonnie was standing in the middle of the room in a triangle made of equal amounts of powder and lit candles, wearing only her vest and a flimsy pair of shorts, barefoot and hair irate. Caroline had the good sense to stop her.

She was going to pass out from all that exertion and then she would feel bad for it but Bonnie was beyond reasoning.

Luca had tried to talk her out of it and Stefan had too but the witch was too headstrong for the three of them combined. 

“I haven’t heard much about him.” Bonnie finally looked up at her friend. She was in the middle of creating a new spell in hopes of breaking whatever boundary spell had been cast on Sage that prevented her from being tracked.

“Yeah, they have a weird connection.” Caroline explained with a shrug. She’d only met Damon Salvatore once during her wedding and it had been enough for her to know when Stefan had told her he had family— his brother, it meant exactly that. “He barely talks about him but I know they love each other a lot. Plus, from what I can tell he’s a crazier version of Stefan. Stefan always gets this dark glimmer in his eyes when he talks about Damon.” Caroline added.

“Like what?” Bonnie quirked a brow.

“Like how he looks at me sometimes but almost a thousandfold.”

“Your husband loves you. Anyone with eyes can see that.” The witch scoffed, calling her best friend out for being a drama queen.

“Yes.” Caroline agreed. “Now imagine that by a thousand.”

“That’s something.” Bonnie says when she realized perhaps Caroline wasn’t completely exaggerating.

“I know.” She sighed. “It’s pretty intense sometimes but you know how you and me are more like sisters and having you here is soothing to me, imagine if we lived like this for 200 years.” She almost sounded like she was making excuses for her husband’s insane connection to his brother.

“Yeah—“

“He’s here.” Caroline exclaimed. They had sent a driver to the airport to pick Damon up from there and could tell he had arrived because he heard Stefan’s hurried steps down the stairs just as the main doors were thrown open. “Wanna go greet him with me?” She asked.

Bonnie looked at her friend, then back the the spell she was working on and sighed. “Sure.” She agreed, pulling on her pants. She wasn’t about to let Caroline get intimidated by a brother’s love.

Not when she had a sister like her.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

“Hello brother.” Damon smirked as he stepped through the doors.

“Damon.” Shamelessly, not caring about the servants in the room with them, Stefan walked straight into his brother’s arms. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Hey. You’re not going to start crying are you?” Damon whispered to his brother, chuckling. He noticed then the Mrs. Salvatore appear at the top of the stairs and whispered. “Because I know you’re used to crying around me but your wife shouldn’t see you crack— and she’s here.”

“Oh. Yeah.” Stefan pulled back, fixing his face and clothes in a fidgety manner but just in time for Caroline to defend the stairs. “Honey...”

“You’re welcome.” Caroline greeted Damon as she grabbed her husband’s hand which he held out to her and allowed herself to be pulled into his side.

“Thank you, Caroline.” Damon replies courteously.

“Oh. This is my best friend Bonnie.” Caroline turned around to point at Bonnie who looked... pale.

“Nice to meet—“ Damon started to greet.

“Gotta check on that spell Carr—“ And just like that, the witch escaped the room the same way she had come in, praying to her ancestors to hold her upright till she was far enough away.

Downstairs, Damon looked at Stefan with a frown on his face. “That was new...” he tried for a lighter tone but something about the woman set off alarm bells deep inside his gut. 

And he knew it wasn’t something good.


	4. Quondam

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A summer past...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Character Glossary for Chapter 4**
> 
> • David— Damon (an alias he used 10 years ago.
> 
> • Sheila— Bonnie(her middle name. Given to Damon 10 years ago.)

_“It’s him. It’s him. It’s him.”_ Bonnie’s brain had started to scream, going into overdrive the moment she had laid eyes on him. 

She didn’t hear what was being said, didn’t realize anything that was happening around her and then— his eyes were turning her way, he was about to say something . To her.

She panicked, her throat constricting, palms sweating as her nightmare, living and breathing, stood before her.

She had to leave. She didn’t even know if she was able to come up with an excuse before escaping the room.

“I have to go. I need to leave...—“ it was all she could think as she used the back door of the house and stepped out into the trees at the back of the house.

 _Away_ was the only thing on her mind as her pace begun to quicken and before long she was jogging through the woods, her slip-ons sliding off her feet but she didn’t care. She needed to get away from him, long enough for her to remind herself of how strong she is now. How different she was from the innocent Sheila who had lost everything because of her risky summer romance with him.

_With her David._

_Hers._

**𝕱𝖑𝖆𝖘𝖍𝖇𝖆𝖈𝖐**

_Bonnie got lost in the crowd of tourists that lined the streets of Mystic Falls. They pushed her along on their way._

_It was just her luck that she had come to town at a time when the Mystic Parade was happening. So much for having a magical awakening and having a new and fleeting dangerous romance with a total stranger— her thoughts were just as perverted as any normal eighteen year old but her body remained untouched. Pure._

_Chaste._

_The music and dancing was filled with joy and as much as she feared for her dream of meeting a dashing stranger being soiled by the festivities, she couldn’t help but be roped into the celebration._

_The supper time warmth, combined with the bumping together of bodies, aggravated the atmosphere’s heat, causing beads of sweat to run down the sides of her face and obscenely between her breasts._

_The fact that some of the bodies she bumped into were pure male—beautiful with bodies crafted like a god’s was probably adding to her body’s heat._

_Without warning, and not asking for her permission she found herself locking arms with two of such Greek Gods, dragging her along and making merry in a way that was so contagious she couldn’t help joining in the songs with them._

_After about thirty minutes jauntily skipping down the crowded street with her hunks, she managed to break free of them. They were too energetic for her._

_Wearing a shitfaced grin, she found a corner between two shops in town and snuck in there to lean against the wall of the Mystic Grill to catch her breath._

_She closed her eyes and sighed. Suddenly and without any warning —as she was starting to think was the norm in this town— lips touched hers._

_Briefly._

_Softly._

_Seductively._

_Her eyes flew open and she stared up into the most devastatingly handsome face she’s seen._

_Maybe it was the setting: the music, the crowd, the merrymaking. Maybe it was the fact that his were the clearest blue eyes she had ever seen. Or the fact that he looked like he was peering into her very soul, searching and reaching further in until Bonnie could t help the gasp that slipped past her lips._

_Tall, dark and handsome— and totally, gorgeously male._

_“What— why...?” Bonnie stammered as her eyes watched the dangerous man before her. He looked way too casual about the fact that he had just kissed her —if you could call it that— on her lips._

_“A kiss because of the festivities and we’re celebrating.” There you have it. It was intended to be a kiss then. “You are very beautiful.” He responded, huskily and with a conviction that convinced Bonnie of his words._

_“And you are very bold.” She managed to say, feeling braver than she actually felt. “Do you try to seduce every woman you meet?”_

_“Only the beautiful ones.” The man responded with casual flair._

_“I’m not looking for a player.” Bonnie says even as she felt her knees get weak under the scrutiny of his bright blue eyes. May the gods save her because this man was pure trouble and she was realizing the accuracy of the adage: be careful what you wish because you just might get it._

_To think she had naively wanted a summer fling that’ll last her a very long time._

_“What are you looking for?” His voice sliced through her thoughts like hot knife through butter._

_“I don’t know what I’m looking for exactly.” Bonnie replied after sparing it more serious thought. She was an eighteen year old witch now coming into her power. Of course she hadn’t spared time to think about her true desires. Besides, she was fresh out of high school and this trip was more or less a congratulatory trip for her._

_“Well that’s not true. You want what everybody wants.” He smirked, doing something with his eyes that Bonnie found irresistible._

_“What? A mysterious stranger who has all the answers?” She quipped._

_“Hm, well, let's just say I've been around a long time. I've learned a few things.”_

_“So,” Bonnie quirked a brow in question._

_“David.” The man finally gave his name._

_Right off the bat, she knew he was lying about his name. It didn’t matter. As long as he responded to it in the moment, that was all that counted. “So, David, tell me. What is it that I want?” She was curious to hear what he was going to say._

_“You want a love that consumes you. You want passion, an adventure, and even a little danger.” David says as he stepped closer to him, eyes —those deadly eyes— getting more intense as he came closer._

_“So, what do you want?” She hadn’t meant to sound so husky, so —needy and it must have shaken David because he paused, and hesitated._

_Well, it was either her tone or the question but David seemed to hesitate before answering; “For now, I want to enjoy the festival with a beautiful woman.” He held out an arm, willing her to grab onto it and when she seemed to hesitate, he added; “You’re not with your boyfriend or husband, are you? Please tell me you’re alone.”_

_Bonnie thought of being honest. The truth was, this trip was half a congratulatory trip for her graduation and half a trip to visit Caroline for the first town in her hometown._

_They had talked about it since she could last remember but upon reaching the town, she discovered that Caroline —and her mom, Sheriff Forbes— had apparently left town for a vacation somewhere remote which meant she was all alone in a strange place._

_But he didn’t need to know that. “I came with a friend but I lost her in the crowd about an hour or so ago.”_

_“Then you must stay with me and let me show you around Mystic Falls.” He cajoled._

_“Are you a native by any chance?”_

_“Technically.” He responded with a nonchalant shrug then almost immediately launched into an elaboration. “My parents met and married here and I spent the early years of my life in this town although that feels like such a long time ago.” He finished with a wistful smile._

_“Oh.” It was all she could say and Damon chuckled. It wasn’t like all the others that came before it. It was— darker. Almost sad._

_“My mother took ill right after—” He paused and seemed to gather his thoughts before continuing. “—I mean a few years after I was born, and she died soon after. My father couldn’t bear the weight of his grief and joined her soon after. I’m an only child.”_

_“I’m so sorry.” Bonnie whispered. Her biggest problem had been her empathy. She cared too much about everything._

_“That’s no problem.” David shrugged nonchalantly. “I’ve had time to make my peace with my losses.”_

_“Still, loss of any kind is never okay.” She affirmed. “My parents were never a part of my life but I know I felt lonelier when I heard the news of their passing.” She contributed, a wan smile making its way onto her face._

_“Will you come with me?” David asked again after carefully studying her, then held out his arm for her once more. “This is the part where you say your name.”_

_“Sheila.” She lies easily. Well, it was only half of the truth. Her real name was Bonnie Shiela Bennett but she used her name Bonnie more often. Thinking about how he wasn’t honest about his name earlier, she chose Shiela. “You may call me Sheila.” She reiterated._

_“Sheila? Such a simple and ordinary name for a remarkable woman.” He complemented her, then urged her further by sticking out his arm. “So, will you come with me, Sheila? If you don’t, you’re always going to wonder what could have happened, and so will I.”_

_“You’re very persuasive, I know you’re aware of that.” Bonnie chuckled._

_**If you don’t, you’re always going to wonder what could have happened, and so would I.”** It echoed inside her head._

_Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO_

_In the days that followed, she met with David almost everyday. He had a different site to show her everyday and she was intrigued by his presence— his knowledge of places, languages and everything. The myths, the history, the magic. He couldn’t have been more than ten years older than her so the fact that he was so learned was so attractive to her she felt her knees get weak and warmth pool between her legs every time he started to talk about something._

_The scene shifts in her mind. Three boys, teenagers like her, cornering her in an alley in broad daylight trying to jostle her and David, standing at the other end of the alley, arms tucked gently into his pockets as he called out; “I’m going to count to three. If you don’t wish to be strung up in the town square noon tomorrow, using your large intestines as part of the festivities, you better leave.”_

_The boys hesitated, calling him on his bluff but two of them wavered._

_“I’m not in a good mood so I suggest you don’t test me.” He says. His tone was still casual but the venom was obvious to even her. Yes— this was the danger she had sensed from the very day she met him._

_David stood up straight from his leaning position, staring down the boys. “One.” He spat out. “Two.” Followed quickly after._

_Something about him must have convinced the boys because in the next few seconds they hightailed out of there._

_Bonnie slumped against the wall, breathing a sigh of relief as she watched him. His entire countenance had changed. He was her dashing prince once more._

_“You weren’t really going to kill them, were you?”_

_He seemed to spare it some thought before laughing. “Of course not! Who do you think I am? James Bond?”_

_She joined him in laugher._

_Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO_

_“Hey. I heard there’s a place in the woods where a hundred witches died.” Bonnie says around a mouthful of fries._

_“Who told you that?” David asked with a brow raised._

_“My grandmother. Oh I forgot to tell you I’m a native too.” She chewed, then swallowed before peeking up. “I was born here but my grams took custody of me when I was about a month old so everything I know about this place I learned from her.”_

_“And you’re interested in that place?” His brow was still up._

_“Well, I find it fascinating.”_

_“Your interest in the supernatural is—” Damon thought of an appropriate word to use._

_“Unattractive right?”_

_“I was going to say very attractive.” He chuckled. “I like a woman who is open minded and curious about the world. It makes life easier.”_

_“So, do you know the place?” She dipped her fries in ketchup._

_“Yes.”_

_“Can you take me there?”_

_“After lunch.”_

_It was the sixth day after they met in the town during the parade. Caroline had still not made contact with her and if Damon had realized that she was really alone in town, he made no mention of it._

_Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO_

_The trees hummed with power, the sounds, the whispers, Bonnie knew it the moment she stepped in the place of the 100 witches power._

_Everything her grandmother had said cane rushing back to her. David had chosen to let her explore on her own for some reason and she was glad he had. It was dusk and the obvious flapping of her hair in a silent wind, was hard to miss._

_Regardless of how she felt about him —the rush, the danger, the desire and passion— she wanted to keep this part of herself a secret from him. She wanted this moment for herself._

_Later, when she was done soaking in that raw energy from the ground, she told David something she never thought she would ever say; “let’s stay here.”_

_“You’re crazy.” He said. This time he wasn’t teasing. He most obviously thought she was crazy for even suggesting it._

_“I’m serious. I want to camp here with you.” She pouted. “Come with me.” She says as she grabbed his hand and pulled a reluctant David with her._

_She stopped and spread her arms around her, swirling, dancing._

_“There’s a creek through there.” She pointed through some trees. “I have some money. All we need is a tent and some s'mores.”_

_He looked at her, a smile on his face and the next words out of his mouth stilled her, simultaneously chilling and warming her; **meli’āki**_

_She didn’t need any interpretation. She was good with languages —something her Grams had insisted she needed. Apparently, spells came in all and every language.— so she knew that was the Amharic word for angel._

_Something in her face must have told him she understood because in the next moment, his palms were cupping her face, lips capturing hers in a kiss she wasn’t about to forget._

_The moans echoed through her memory and flipped to the new scene._

_They were splashing in the creek in the woods. She had barely left them since they came back from buying their camping equipment._

_She didn’t care about the festival anymore. She was more interested in skinny dipping with her mysterious stranger._

_The clouds seemed to gather. If she thought it was strange that clouds gathered instantly on a hot summer afternoon, she said nothing of it and neither did he._

_They both fell the pull and before she knew it, they were tangled in the water, bodies touching. Everything felt heightened and new and Bonnie knew—she knew this was it. This was the time._

_So she surrendered to him._

_He had only managed to get her to the bank before his fingers entered her, breached her untouched body. “You’re so ready.” He whispered, tortured somehow._

_“Please— I need you.” Oh if the boys in her school should hear her now. After constantly rejecting them, waiting for the one, that she would lose herself to a man who’s surname she didn’t even know, on a pitch of dried leaves at a river bank in the woods of her hometown as the site of a mass murder of her ancestors._

_What a high._

_Her blood sung, and she knew David felt it too because he couldn’t stop: when he entered her, his eyes locked on hers, staring as he thrust into his untouched lover._

_She lost count of how many times he said it and how many times she did. “I love you—”_

_In the days that followed, she heard it so much that she begun to believe it._

_David loved her— he felt the same attraction for her as she did for him. It made no sense that ten days after being kissed in public by a stranger, she was professing undying love for him._

_Like a page flipping, he stood there now in her memory, eyes sparkling with obvious affection for her._

_“I’m taking you out tonight.” He says._

_“Where are we going?” She asked, perking up._

_“The Salvatore mansion.” He revealed with a playful wiggle of his brows. “There’s a party there tonight.”_

_“Isn’t that like strictly invite? That’s one of the founding families, no?” She knew that much. And she wondered what business they had there but she had to admit that it would be nice to enjoy everything within her means of enjoyment._

_“Yes and yes but I’m friends with their son so we can go.” David shrugged carelessly._

_“I need to get pretty.” She jumped up excitedly, already thinking about buying a gown she saw in town a few days ago. She had cancelled her hotel reservation early when she moved into the woods with him so she had plenty money left over. Besides, David had purchased all their camping equipment so she had barely touched her money._

_“meli’āki, you’re already heavenly.” David smiled at her._

_In the next page of her memory, she stood in a royal blue flowing gown, eyes open wide as she drunk in the majesty that was the Salvatore mansion. The tall panes, the wooden floors, the majestic staircase, the balcony, the runway between the trees as they had come in and just— everything. The epitome of magic._

_“Stefan. Are you drunk?” David’s words cut through her house-induced orgasm to see the other holding up who she assumed was his friend._

_“No, just tired.” The other said, obviously lying. “Who’s your date?” He asked, a low drawl._

_“Her name is Sheila.” David provided and Bonnie did a dramatic courtesy that had both men chuckling._

_“I once knew someone called Sheila—” Stefan mused._

_“Okay buddy, that’s enough.” David slung Stefan’s arm around his shoulders, a gesture that made Bonnie love him more than she already did. Taking care of other people will never not be attractive. “Hey, why don’t you look around? I’ll make sure Stefan here goes to bed and I’ll be with you shortly.”_

_She looked around. It almost felt like she was floating on clouds. “Are you alone tonight? Or a you here with a boyfriend? Perhaps a husband?” David’s familiar voice says from behind her._

_Bonnie couldn’t help the smile that crawled onto her face. “Neither.” She answered flirtatiously._

_“You wound me, fik’irē.” David whispered into her hair, having moved so close to her._

_When she turned around, she was met by the loving gaze of her man. Intense blue eyes that will never fail to hypnotize her. “Do you know Amharic or did you just learn the words that’ll help your playboy career?” She whispered although her words had no malice. Everything in the room —the people, chatter, music, even the walls— faded into the background as she smiled up at him. Her eighteen years old heart beating frantically._

_“Walk with me, love.” He whispered._

_And so they had... through the woods, moving over the entire expanse of the Salvatore property._

_“This is magnificent. I love it here.” She whispered, fingers entwined with his. They had taken off their shoes earlier and were holding them in their free hands._

_“Shall we stay here then?” He asked._

_When she looked at him, in the glow of the moonlight, she saw that he was asking her seriously. “Can we?”_

_“Yes.” David smiled at her. “I’m an honorary member thanks to Stefan. Of course as long as we don’t run into any of his family. That’s his uncle and his wife, we’ll be good.”_

_“Tempting. But I’ll miss our home in the woods.” She says in response._

_“Careful, meli’āki...” Damon whispered, eyes darkening for a moment before dragging her by her arm back towards the house. “Come with me.”_

_When the page flipped, they were naked on a large bed in the Salvatore house, writhing and moaning as she rose and sat on him._

_She controlled the pace, controlled the union and this mating dance. She whispered... not sure if that was Latin or Greek... it just spilled out of her lips because she had no idea what it was and Damon grabbed her by the waist, thrusting hard up into her till they both spiraled over the edge and crushed to their loud orgasms..._

_When the page flipped, she was alone._

_In a tent she had called home only a few days ago._

_Empty home._

_Her hair was damp and matted, she was shaking but the tears didn’t flow._

_They had stopped flowing days ago when she had woken up to find David gone._

_A single note on the pillow by her side._

_There was no trace of him... not in town and nowhere else._

_She went by the Salvatore house several times to see if he was there but he had just vanished from the surface of the earth._

_The only proof that he had been real, was the aching she felt in her body. The change._

_He was the only man who had had her, taken her, made love to her and carved his fingerprints on her skin till the thought of him hurt—physically._

_And then the wailing started._

_Relentlessly it continued._

“No!” She screamed. She was not allowing the memories of the past to engulf her.

“I am not Sheila!! I am Bonnie Bennett, a Salem witch! I am powerful and strong and nothing and no one can hurt me.” She recited.

She had taken to reciting courageous words just to help her feel it every time the memories threatened to spill into her consciousness.

“You hear me? I am Bonnie Bennett! And I will not be intimidated by my past! I will not cry and I will not be weak. I will not—” She broke down then.

“This is so unfair—” She whispered as a sob tore through her. Her chest constricted and the pain she had buried deep inside her rose through her, scarring her from the inside like acid corrodes.

“Why do I have to see him now?”


	5. Cognizance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Recognition.

“Bonnie... Bonnie...” Caroline called as she got closer to the room Bonnie used for her magic.

They had given the witch and Luka one of the rooms in the house —that had very little furnishing— to use for their magic practice and spells and given them individual rooms to sleep in although Bonnie was yet to make use of her bedroom, choosing to spend every waking moment in the workroom instead.

After Bonnie had left in a rush, Caroline had wondered for a bit why she didn’t even wait to greet Damon first but understood that the witch usually got crazy when she was working on creating a new spell and she had appropriately apologized to Stefan’s brother in her behalf.

He had seemed taken aback by the fact that she was a witch, something that surprised her but she paid no heed to it.

The surprise had come when they had —all three of them— gone to the Salvatore study to talk. That was when she found out about the kidnappers note.

At first she was upset that Stefan had kept that from her but it soon wore off as his fears were voiced out.

Vampires.

Someone somewhere knew about them and that person probably had a witch of their own which would explain all the barriers Bonnie had been hitting whenever she tried to find Sage. The reality of the situation was that she could either be a weak, crying mother, or she could be the strong vampire she was and fight to get her daughter back.

_There’s going to be hell to pay when she found whoever thought it was a good idea to mess with her kid._

“She’s not here... I thought she was with you?” Luka says from where he was kneeling in the middle of the room, grimoires spread open in front of him.

“No she’s not.”

“That’s odd—“ He stood up, a worried frown creasing his forehead as he wondered where the witch would go without telling him or Caroline.

“When did you last see her?” Caroline asked, sensing the worry coming off of Luka’s aura and getting concerned herself.

“This afternoon when I was coming in here to work on some spells.” He stepped around the candles, herbs and books, moving towards Caroline who stood in the doorway. “I saw you two together and didn’t want to interfere with your conversation so I just left and came back later. I assumed you were still— you’re not?” He paused, frown deepening as he seemed to realize once more what she had been saying.

“She said she was coming to check on a spell she was creating.” Caroline sighed then turned around and started calling out for her friend. “Bonnie! Bonnie!” When there was no response, she rushed to the kitchen, asked the staff if they had seen her. None of them had.

“Caroline... is anything the matter?” Stefan asked, stepping out of the study with Damon close behind him, both wearing worried looks.

“Bonnie’s not— she’s not here.” Did she sound like she was close to panic? Perhaps. And perhaps she wasn’t the strong vampire she thought she was. 

“Did something happen that I don’t know about?” Luka asked from behind Caroline, suspiciously now.

“Who are you?” Damon asked, looking at the other man almost predatorily. 

“Oh sorry.” Stefan quickly apologized to Luka on Damon’s behalf. “Luka, this is my brother Damon. Damon, this is Luka. He’s also a witch working with Bonnie to find Sage.”

“What’s taking so long then?” Damon didn’t mean to snap but he couldn’t imagine that two witches working together —especially after all the praise Caroline had sung about Bonnie in the study— still couldn’t locate the girl.

He’d had his fair share of run-ins with witches over the years and usually, they terrified him so he didn’t know why this particular pair seem to be so out of sorts especially when the life of his niece was at stake.

“I know finding Sage is important but Bonnie— what if something happened to her?” Caroline almost sobbed.

It must have been a wretched sound because in the next moment, Luka was beside her, holding her by her shoulder and smiling reassuringly at her. —The closest he had gone to her was a handshake when they met 6 years ago and after that, it was waving from a distance. Now, he stood, holding her as if they’ve been friends for a long time.— “She’s a witch. A powerful witch who became even more powerful the moment she set foot in Mystic Falls I doubt anyone would be stupid enough to test her.”

“That’s not what I mean...” Caroline’s eyes implored. She saw the moment Luka understood what she was worried about, saw the recognition clearly in his eyes and saw when the worry crept back into his features.

_The curse of Mystic Falls: And Bonnie’s weakness._ They both knew that, even if he didn’t know it in as much detail as Caroline did.

He’d been there those nights when Bonnie had screamed herself awake from her nightmares, screams loud enough to make his ears bleed. He’d watched, the first time it happened, Bonnie sitting cross legged on her bed, still very much asleep but eyes wide open, hair flapping wildly in an invisible wind as she chanted a spell he didn’t know.

A spell she didn’t know either.

It was years later, that he found out Mystic Falls was the answer to the bi annual nightmares.

“I’ll go look for her.” He says, concern changing to worry the more he thought about it.

“No. I’ll go.” Caroline says firmly.

“Caroline—“ Stefan stepped in, trying to deter her.

“I’m going, Stefan.” She says in a tone that brooked no argument. “She needs _me._ “

“Luka can—“ Damon tried, pointing at the other guy who also seemed to be wearing the same petrified look Caroline did.

“She’s my best friend and I just _know_ that right now, I’m the one Bonnie needs.” Caroline says, then casts a daring look at all three men. “I’d like to see you try and stop me.”

“At least let me—“

“Thanks, Luka... but I’m going alone.” Caroline cut in, then smiled at him. “Can you draw a bath for her? Make it as soothing as possible... I’m sorry to ask you to do this but your magic and knowledge of her means you’re the best person to do relaxation remedies for her.”

“Yeah.” Luka agreed as Caroline supersped out of the house.

“That was odd. Something we need to know?” Damon asked suspiciously. As curious as he was about the runaway witch, he was more interested in whether whatever was wrong with her would interfere in getting Stefan’s daughter home. That was the whole point.

“I don’t see how you need to know that.” Luka responded carefully with a patronizing smirk before turning to Stefan. “Bonnie came here to find your daughter and she will do that even if it kills her. She just got overwhelmed and needed a break.”

“Are you sure that’s all?” Stefan couldn’t help asking. Worried, as opposed to Damon’s suspicion.

“Look, she had been working for days when the call came in from your wife. She was supposed to rest for a few days and regain her spirit energy before starting again but she only got an hour’s nap on the flight over here and has been cooped up in that room fighting an invisible barrier for 2 days with little to no sleep at all.” He sighed, realizing that he should have perhaps knocked the witch out with a spell and forced her to rest when she refused to. Yes, she would be filled with wrath when she woke up, but at least she would be much better. “It’s normal for her to be overwhelmed. Over exertion sometimes make her pass out cold.” He added.

“Won’t it have been easier for you to find her since you’re a witch?” Damon asked. He still didn’t trust that that was all there is to that interaction between Luka and Caroline earlier. “Why did Caroline have to go?”

“Because in the event that she’s fully awake but ... lost in thought, your wife probably has a better chance of soothing her than I do.” Luka directed his answer at Stefan. Something about Damon just didn’t sit well with him. With a curt nod of his head, he turned around and left.

“I dunno...” Damon thought out loud. “I’m not the only one who thinks we’re missing something right?”

“Yeah. They shared a look before Luka offered to go and search for her but it’s none of our business. Bonnie wants to keep some parts of herself private, we’ll respect that.” Stefan agreed with his brother’s assessment but he also knew if he so much as tried messing with Bonnie, Caroline would kill him. Literally. He had to make sure Damon would try anything funny either. “Won’t we?” He asked his brother sternly.

“Or come on, brother. It’s not like I was planning to compel her into revealing her darkest secrets to me.” Damon smirked, squinting his eyes in that devilish way he did when he was plotting mischief.

“Damon.” 

“You should see the look on your face.” Damon laughed, patting his younger brother on the shoulder. “I promise I won’t.”

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

“Bonnie. Hey.” Caroline says as she finally caught up with Bonnie.

She had roamed the woods on the Salvatore estate because one of the police officers that have been stationed outside the house had said they saw Bonnie going through the woods through the back door but after combing the entire property, she could still not find the witch. Giving up, she had called Luka and asked for a location spell for Bonnie.

She wasn’t far from the house, just not on the property.

“Carr.” Bonnie smiles when she came face to face with her best friend.

“Did you lose track of the time?” Caroline says softly, successfully keeping the worry out of her tone. The last thing she wanted was to alert Bonnie to her trauma —in the unlikely event that that was not the witch was thinking about while roaming the streets aimlessly.

“Honestly, yeah. The trees had been so peaceful but I thought perhaps I would breathe easier if I just walked along the road.” Bonnie lied easily. The trees were peaceful only when her memories had overwhelmed her. When she finally shook herself free of the past and it’s grips, she found the trees daunting.

_She has walked those trees with David._

Every step felt like she was reliving the past. At least when she was in the Salvatore home, if she kept away from the places she was familiar with —like the room Caroline had arranged for her and the fact that the room opposite it had been where David had made thorough love to her ten years ago— and the large room where the party had been held.

She had thought of going into town too, but realized she’d most likely be haunted in every corner of town too so she stuck to the road in front of the Salvatore mansion, walking 1000 meters to and a 1000 meters fro. It was the farthest she dared to go.

“Well, I’ll walk with you then.” Caroline smiled, linking her arm with Bonnie’s and following along the path.

“When was the last time you strolled lazily like this, Mrs. Salvatore?” Bonnie asked after a few minutes of companionable silence.

“Don’t remind me— but then again, I’ve always been destined for the life of luxury.” Caroline joked. That she can even pluck up the courage to joke in this situation when she was so close to losing her mind, she had Bonnie to thank for that. Watching the with working hard to hold herself together for her, was giving her the courage to reciprocate.

“I won't debate that.” Bonnie chuckled. Even as kids, Caroline had been the high maintenance princess. It was only right that she lived like a queen when she was older.

“It’s the situation, isn’t it?” Caroline dared to breach the subject on their 1000 meters walk back. 

“What?” Bonnie asked, confused as she looked up at her friend.

“There’s a child in danger— my child. I know how you get when—“ Caroline elaborated.

“I know.” Was all Bonnie said, a wan smile on her lips.

“I’ve been selfish. Calling you here, especially when I know how you get with cases like this.” The Vampire lamented.

“Don’t insult me, Caroline Forbes.” Bonnie replies sternly.

“It’s been a while since anyone called me that.” She chuckled. She was an orphan now, like Bonnie. Perhaps that was why in spite of them living apart and having individually busy lives, they always stuck together.

“I’m going to say this again so get it into your head. In the past, now or in the future, if you **need** me and you don’t tell me out of some kind of consideration for me, I’m going to be so angry at you, and I’m not kidding about that.”

“I’m sorry.” She apologized.

“You better be.” Bonnie says sternly then smiled almost immediately. “Talking with you sure makes me feel better. Much better.”

“You want to head back?” Caroline asked after a while. It had been a few minutes past 6:00pm when she left the house and knew dinner would be served by now.

“Tired already, you grandma?” Bonnie teased but she was already wheeling them around to head back to the house. It was getting late after all and she couldn’t ignore her problems. Not this particular one, anyway.

“Remind me again who’s eternally eighteen and who’s twenty eight?” Caroline teased her back with a chuckle.

“I should ground you. Give you curfew.” She stopped dead in her tracks. “Hold on—“

“What?” Caroline felt a new batch of worry engulf her.

“Your husband’s brother,”

“Damon?” Caroline frowned, unsure where this was going.

“Yeah. Him.” _Damon huh?_ Bonnie’s mind repeated the name. So it wasn’t David but Damon. “I’m not crazy to ask but that means he’s also a vampire right?” She asked, slowly, realizing what it was she had been so uneasy about. Something didn’t add up. Something was definitely off in this twisted fate of theirs.

“Yes.” Caroline answered simply, eyes scanning her best friend’s face.

“And he’s been a vampire, say, for almost as long as Stefan?” Bonnie frowned. She thought of telling Caroline. 

She thought of telling Caroline that the reason why she bolted out of the house was because her David, her dashing prince from ten years ago who had broken her hymen, then broken her heart and spirit, was Damon.

But it didn’t make sense. She didn’t have answers for the questions that will follow but she was going to find them. Whatever it took she would find the answers to them.

“So, this is some kind of weird embarrassing family story but apparently they were played by this one vampire. I think her name was Katherine.” Caroline chattered, pulling Bonnie with her as they got to the main entrance of the house. It was about 600 meters of road before the mansion would be in view but they saw the lights from where they were. “Yeah I’m sure that was the name Stefan mentioned. She’s the one who turned them.”

“Did she?” Bonnie wiggles her brows in hopes that the blonde would understand and she won’t have to ask if Katherine slept with both brothers.

“Yes.” The vampire confirmed. “So according to Stefan, she compelled him to do stuff but Damon was the one who really loved her.”

“Huh.” She didn’t intend to be so sarcastic but she couldn’t help it.

“I hear he was broken after she died, lived his life since then not really committing to anyone else.” 

“I can imagine.” Again with the cynicism. This time, Caroline did not ignore it.

“Why?”

“Just curious.” Bonnie replies with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders. So David —Damon— had loved and lost, and because of that he didn’t commit to anyone. Was that why he left her?

“You found her.” Luka exclaimed as he met with the two women. He had been about to go looking for them when Caroline hadn’t come back either. To think he worried for nothing.

“Oh come on... you make it sound like I was lost. I was just taking a stroll outside.” Bonnie berated, smiling at the other witch who joined them in walking the rest of the way to the house.

“When someone has been kidnapped?”

“Oh Luka— I dare someone. Anyone. To try that with me.” Dramatically, she did a silent spell that caused the wind to swirl around them, lifting up the leaves into the air. 

Caroline smiled. It was always fascinating to see Bonnie’s power at work, especially when she was doing the little things.

“That’s my girl.” Luka grinned. “I run a bath for you.”

“Whatever will I do without you?” Bonnie teased. She was feeling lighter now. She had Caroline, and Luka... and her power. She was ready to face Damon Salvatore.

“You don’t want to find out.” Luka chuckled.

“Hey, that was my suggestion.” Caroline chipped in.

“You need a pat of the back? Or a tiara?” Bonnie asked when the main doors of the house were opened for them.

“A tiara will be cool.”

“Great.” She nodded firmly, determination back in her fiery brown eyes. “When I get Sage back, I’m going to make sure this house is a fortress before I go back to California.”

“You really don’t want to come back here do you?”

“I don’t think I’m ever going to be over that.” She smiled briefly, “Today was proof enough.”

“We were about to have dinner, join us?” Luka asked, pointing toward the dining room.

“I’ll take that bath first. If you’re still having dinner when I’m done, sure.” Bonnie asked and released her hold on Caroline, pushing them both towards the dining room before they could protest or suggest waiting for her.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

From his room upstairs, Damon had a clear view of the compound of the Salvatore mansion.

He knew when he had walked into the room. The minute he had stepped in there, the haze seemed to fall off his eyes.

His angel, atop those sheets, riding him as they both chased their orgasms. The fire in the fireplace had flared up that night and cast an ethereal glow on her, _His Sheila._

He should have known then.

He should have felt her magic then.

Hell, he should have known it the moment he saw her during that festival, leaning in that corner against the Mystic Grill that the pull he felt towards her was not normal. In that sea of people with him minding his business and not even trying to hook up, he should have known that it was not normal how he had been drawn to her and how he had seemed to just... fall in sync with her in the days that followed.

And now he watched her, talking with his sister-in-law and that other guy, he watched as the leaves swirled in the wind, watched her laughing face, felt her confidence in herself from where he stood watching her.

Behind curtains.

**Like a coward.**

He watched someone else stand in his place. He belonged where Luka stood. He hated that someone else was in that place.

_“Oh Luka— I dare someone. Anyone. To try that with me.”_ she had said. What power.

What confidence.

His little angel grew up.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

“Hello, sorry for the late entry.” Bonnie greeted as she walked into the room 45 minutes later, wearing a sundress that’s caroline had loaned to her and smelling like flowers and the earth. Whatever Luka had put in that bath, she was living for it.

She had frankly expected them to be done by now, hoped they would be as she soaked in the tub but there they all sat. She cast a look around the table, choosing the seat directly opposite Damon. If she was going to win this internal battle, she was going to have to grab the bull by the horns. _No retreat, no surrender._

“Not a problem. I’m glad you’re alright.” Stefan responded as Bonnie pulled a seat for herself and sat. He was curious about a lot of things but he also knew if Caroline wasn’t telling him, then Bonnie didn’t want anyone to know.

“I hear you’re a witch.” Damon says when she sat down and started dishing food onto her plate. 

It was surreal. Like a reintroduction of sorts. Like meeting anew all over again. He could almost hear it now.

_“Hello, my name is Damon Salvatore... a Vampire.”_

_“Pleasure to meet you. I’m Bonnie Bennett, a witch.”_

_“The pleasure’s all mine. Want to enjoy the festival with me?”_

_“Why, yes, thank you. Are you a native?” The young Bonnie Bennett asked as she looped her arm into his and he led her into town, showing her his favorite places, and giving her a thrilling adventure in the two weeks they had together._

“Yes, and apparently you’re a vampire.” Bonnie says, her words cutting into Damon’s thoughts with just as much bite as his had. She dropped the ladle, sat straight in her seat and bowed her head curtly. “I apologize for earlier. It was rude of me to leave without saying anything. I’m Bonnie Bennett and I hope we can work together to find Caroline’s child.”

_“Meli’āki.”_ Damon whispered. 

He hadn’t meant to, the words just slipped out of his mouth and he watched as Bonnie froze.


	6. Concession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinner?

Bonnie has frozen and the rest of the room with her.

That name, the way he said it, brought memories of their time together. Memories of him taking her for the first time at the bank of that stream in the woods.

Memories of dancing by the fire at night and memories of whispering love to her every chance he got.

_A happier time._

She wondered what his reason was to be calling her that now? Was it his way of confirming that she was indeed the naive girl from ten years ago? Or did he perhaps want to find out if he had the same effect he had on her back then.

And he did, boy he did. Those blue eyes, the devilish glint in them, the way his eyebrows seem to convey his thoughts and emotions — she had known back then that his face was going to be her undoing, his eyes will forever have their power over her.

And now, she had to steel herself against his eyes, boring into her soul with familiarity. All the guards she had set on her heart were giving way to him, just because he called her that.

This is so unfair.

She thought to herself. Years after. Years of turning men down easily, years of men breaking up with her because she never offered her heart to them in the way they wanted.

Years of being told she was too hard, not flexible, too guarded and too abrasive to allow passion to consume her— something she had worked so hard at.

And there he sat, lackadaisically pulling all her walls down.

She scoffed.—She didn’t mean to. It was just comical that the first verse of Beyoncé’s song _Halo_ chose that very moment to start playing in her head.

_Remember those walls I built?  
Well, baby, they’re tumbling down  
And they didn’t even put up a fight  
They didn’t even make a sound  
I found a way to let you in  
But I never really had a doubt  
Standing in the light of your halo  
I got my angel now  
It’s like I’ve been awakened  
Every rule I had you breaking  
It’s the risk that I’m taking  
I ain’t never gonna shut you out._

What a fucking travesty her life was. Her ancestors must be having a laugh at her expense.

When her eyes refocused around the room, it was to see four pairs of concerned eyes on her. It was almost funny how identical their looks was, and the smile she gave them was genuine in that regard. “Sorry, sometimes I get lost in my own head.” She apologized, sticking with the truth on this.

Taking a deep breath, she released it, picked up her fork and started to eat. 

She made easy chatter with Luka who was sitting to her right as she ate.

Since she had joined them much later, it didn’t take long for the others to finish their meal, and she still had quite a while to go.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

Luka prided himself as the only man who knew Bonnie Bennett enough. That knowledge of the witch did not come from the words they spoke or even from living together for as long as they have— no. That knowledge came from countless times of mixing their magic, channeling each other.

Each witch’s magic and power was different. Almost like DNA— the blueprint of life itself.

When you encounter a witch, there was always a peculiar trait that only they had. Bonnie has hers in spades. He knew her. And from that knowledge he knew that the witch was in an unfortunate position. She was on the defense in a way that he had never seen her before.

It didn’t take a genius to know who she was guarding against.

_Damon Salvatore_

The man sat across from the witch, intense eyes watching her. He looked around the room and knew instantly that everyone was thinking what he was.

It seemed like Bonnie and Damon were in a bubble together, the rest of the room just clueless bystanders.

The witch was concentrating on her meal and the vampire was concentrating on her. Literally. He wasn’t looking anywhere else, neither was he pretending to not be staring at her and his expression — his expression was full of affection it was almost mind numbing. Affection and something else... something... Luka snapped his fingers mentally as he tried to make sense of Damon Salvatore.

Was it regret he saw in those eyes?

But— they had just met, no? Why would he have such an intense gaze on Bonnie and why did it seem like Bonnie was looking everywhere but at him?

Something was definitely amiss. 

“Shall I?” Luka asked carefully as he wiped his mouth clean. He was aware that he didn’t know Bonnie Bennett’s demons as well as Caroline did and he also knew that even Caroline had the limits to what she knew but he _knew_ Bonnie.

Bonnie rolled her eyes at him, swallowing the food in her mouth first. “Luka— I’m capable of eating by myself, you know.”

“Bonnie —“ Caroline chipped in. She had been a spectator to the drama unfolding at the dining table and she was just as lost but even she had to admit that she’s not seen this side of Bonnie —the conscious, almost timid side— in more than a decade. Why did Damon have that power over Bonnie and how was he doing it so easily?

“You too, Carr.” Bonnie’s words cut through Caroline’s thoughts. “Serves me right for using 45 minutes to bath but it was totally worth it so I don’t mind taking my time to eat.” She chuckled, turning to Lula with a stern face. “Besides, you need to shower, we have work to do as soon as I’m done eating and you,” she says, turning to Caroline once more. “you need to rest.”

“Are you—?” The blonde started to ask, her brows furrowed in evident concern.

“Caroline. I swear... you know that thing I promised to never do to you again? If you’re still here in the next minute I’ll do it.” Bonnie threatened.

The blonde vampire gasped but stood up anyways. “You’re a cruel person.” Was all she said before stomping out of the room.

Right after she had been turned — the first vacation after she hadn’t been turned, when she had met with Bonnie, one of the very few things she asked her witch friend was to kill her. 

After careful protest, Bonnie had given in because Caroline had spouted nonsense about needing to know for a fact if she was immortal and Bonnie had been suicidal and self destructive at the time so if she really turned out not to be immortal, they can both just die together then.

Needless to say, it was a disaster.

For both of them.

Bonnie had almost lost her mind in the few minutes it took for Caroline to wake up —the realization that she was going to be responsible for _another_ death, had been too much for the witch to bear— and Caroline had not enjoyed the process of dying and waking up.

Sternly, they had sworn never to try that. And to think Bonnie would just _threaten_ her with that... she huffed and slammed the door shut on her way out.

She knew she was overreacting but still—

Luka gave Bonnie’s shoulder a squeeze then stood up and left the room too.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

“It’s you, isn’t it?” Damon asked when it became obvious that’s stefan wanted an explanation and wasn’t going to leave until he got one.

“What’s going on here? Am I missing something? Do you two know each other?” His brother asked as if on cue.

“Yes we do. Don’t we, _Sheila_?” The older vampire asked, folding his arms on the table before him as he leaned on it, inadvertently getting just a little bit closer to the witch who was paying too much attention to her meal and too little to him.

“How do you know Bonnie Bennett?” Stefan mused. He thought the whole situation was confusing to say the very least.

“Is that your last name? Bennett?” He knew them. Bennett witches had been scattered across his past from generation to generation and for the most part he feared their fierce determination and individualism.

Bonnie sighed and dropped her fork down gently onto her plate, against every petulant fiber of her being that was screaming for her to drop the cutlery loudly just to upset the vampire who was disrupting her one proper meal in days. “Right. We never exchanged last names, did we?” She says slowly, lazily, as she pulled some sage herbs out of the small pouch she carried and kept hidden on her person. “Plus, no one calls me Sheila. My name is Bonnie Sheila Bennett but everyone calls me Bonnie.” She continued in the same casual tone, eyes fixed on the safe till it caught fire, then almost immediately went off so that just the embers burnt. “Damon Salvatore? Is that your real name?” She finally looked up at him.

“It will do for now, yes.” Damon replied then eyes the burning herbs. “Is that supposed to kill me or make me wish I was dead?” His voice was full of humor.

Bonnie frowned at him. Yes, she had done her fair share of dark magic but that was something he resorted to when she **needed** to. “I don’t wish Caroline to hear this conversation and it’s a precaution in the event that Luka got curious too although he’d never disrespect my privacy in that way.” She explained.

“Will one of you care to explain what’s going on here?” Stefan had stood up. He wanted to follow his wife out of the room but couldn’t quite leave until he was sure Bonnie wouldn’t set Damon on fire.

“Don’t you remember her? I introduced her to you at a party you threw here. You told me what a lucky bastard I was and then I put you to sleep because when you start spewing profanities, it’s way past your bed time.” Damon looked at his younger brother, a stupid grin on his face as the memory of that night seeped into his mind.

“When was this?” Stefan asked, more confused now since he realized he had some memory missing too.

“Ten years ago.” Damon answered, eyes reverting back to Bonnie, who just sat the stoically, looking at him. 

“But very briefly and seeing as you don’t recognize me after all that, I didn’t make as much of an impression on you as I would have liked back then.” The witch chipped in.

“Oh you did.” Damon chuckled, his eyes sparkling. “He was just more drunk than he was letting on that night.” He turned to Stefan. “I met her during the Summer festivities ten years ago.”

Stefan seemed to ruminate over the new information and then his eyes widened almost comically. “This — this is the girl who—?”

“Yes. In the flesh.” Damon turned his eyes back to Bonnie.

“Look, usually, and especially in a case as sensitive as this one, I don’t mind having all the help I can get but in this particular case, I want to know why Dav—your brother is needed here.” Bonnie says, her voice quite stern.

“Damon is not here to locate and find Sage. He’s here because he has connections with—“ Stefan stopped, looking towards his brother and unsure which information he was allowed to give. After all, it was only the people in his house at the moment who knew Damon was his brother. 

For his safety, Damon had said.

“Can I speak to her alone?” Damon asked.

“Sure.” Stefan nodded, heading towards the door. “I’m going to go check on Caroline. She’s been active all day today and it’s about time.”

Bonnie watched Stefan leave, then sighed, getting up from the table. Damon followed suit. He stared at her as she walked to the window. She was the same and yet vastly different from the young girl he had known ten years ago.

If anything, she was more beautiful. She has definitely grown into herself. Her ebony skin, those gorgeous clear eyes, the slight tilt of her lips and her hair —although she had cut it very short— did nothing to hide her innate femininity.

And yet, the woman who stood before him, turning from the window to look at him, arms folded over her chest, eyes filled with defiance, glaring at him with her chin out, took his breath away just as her younger self had.

“You’re still very beautiful but your personality has changed drastically. What happened to the gentle, sweet and fun loving girl from ten years ago?” He couldn’t help asking.

“She grew up, learned from her mistakes and moved on, something I’m sure is a new concept to you since you’re still...” the disdain was unmistakable.

“A vampire and frozen in time?” He chuckled self deprecatingly. “I’ve thought of you _meli’āki_... more often than I would like to admit.”

“Save it, will you? Save your pretty Amharic words for someone young and stupid enough to believe you. I doubt I’ve even crossed your mind. After all, I was nothing more that a summer fling with a naive little girl in your 200 years of life.”

“Such anger. Why? Unless—“

“You’re right I’m overreacting. I haven’t thought of you in years but seeing you again is dragging all the anger from ten years ago out. I apologize. It was unnecessary.”

“Of course. And you have every right to be. I was your first lover and I left you with nothing more than a vague note.” Damon took a step forward and was about to take another when he was stopped in his tracks by the look in her eyes.

“Don’t worry about that. I’m past it. I’m glad for the experience and I learned a lot from it.” She dismissed, then got to business. “Now onto important matters, do you assume I can do my work here without any interference from you and your... connections? Sage is what matters to me right now and I’m not about to let a summer fling that should remain in the past, mess with that.”

“Of course.” He agreed. No matter what their past was, he agreed that it was less important than getting Stefan’s child home.“I won’t be in your way. I’ve known enough witches to know not to cross one.”

“Right.”

Damon eyes her suspiciously. “Do you hate me?”

“No.” She responded automatically then seemed to pause and think again before elaborating. “I have no feelings whatsoever for you.”

Damon’s lips twitched. “Trying to set me straight? So I don’t have any misconceptions about us picking up from where we left off?”

“Think whatever you want.” She stepped around him and moved to the table, picking up the sage. She put it out easily, signaling the end of this particular discussion and headed to the door.

Her hand was on the knob, ready to twist it when she felt him behind her, his breath ghosting across the skin of her neck, her ears and her hair.

“Am I to assume you have a husband? Or perhaps a boyfriend?” Damon whispered, plunging both of them into a deja vu. 

“I don’t see how your knowing that will help me find Sage.” Bonnie quickly responds and fled the room.

One more minute and she would have turned around to face him. She would tell herself that she was turning around to dare him, to defy him and tell him she didn’t feel anything for him anymore —that he had no effect on her but all it would have taken was a kiss and she would have been a goner.

Rushing up the stairs, she went into her room first, not wanting to walk into the work room with Luka, looking as flustered as she felt.

_Damon Salvatore was going to be her undoing._


	7. Potente Strega

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magic.

When she had started the onslaught on the spells that were stopping her from tracing Caroline’s daughter, she had been blocked every time she got to the border of Mystic Falls. It had taken Bonnie two full days to come up with a counter spell that allowed her to move beyond the borders of the town.

She knew she hadn’t gotten enough rest and knew she needed it to be at full capacity but at the rate of her current exhaustion, she feared she would need more than 8 hours of sleep to recuperate.

She was looking between 24 to 72 hours rest but she didn’t have that luxury... not when Sage was out there and a darker kind of magic was cloaking her.

She wasn’t surprised when she found that the magic user wasn’t fully light. If he/she was, they wouldn’t be helping someone kidnap a child from their mother.

She sighed.

Locator spells were practically useless when the object or target being traced was cloaked. She knew that when she went into this. 

It’s been four days since she came to town and she was expecting by now that the kidnappers would have reached out so she can at least give Caroline some hope and reassurance that her child was still alive.

The police had combed through Sage’s room but since Stefan had asked them to stay out of the kidnapping case and focus solely on the death of his guards, they hadn’t spent much time in the girl’s room.

And that meant, in the last two days after she had unlocked the boundary spell and started to focus on locator spells, she was running in and out of the girl’s room... needing items that were closer to the girl than the cuddly teddy Caroline had given her the first day.

She had even used strands of Sage’s hair she had collected from the brush on her bedside table to no avail.

The difficult part of what she was doing was that Caroline and Stefan were not blood related to Sage which was weakening their chances of an accurate location but she couldn’t tell her best friend that.

_That would destroy her._

So she had just gone ahead and requested a cup of blood. Even though stefan had offered, Caroline was the one who had given her blood to her.

Bonnie was counting on the occasion that when an adoption happens, the name change in the physical world means the new addition becomes a full fledged member of the family and usually, that alignment is reflected in the spirit world but even she knew that was a long shot.

Blood was blood and the simple reality was that Sage didn’t share her parents’ blood.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

_**Phasmatos Tribum Nas Ex Veras, Sequita Saguines, Ementas Asten Mihan Ega Petous.** _

_**Phasmatos Tribum Nas Ex Veras, Sequita Saguines, Ementas Asten Mihan Ega Petous.** _

_**Phasmatos Tribum Nas Ex Veras, Sequita Saguines, Ementas Asten Mihan Ega Petous.** _

_**Phasmatos Tribum Nas Ex Veras, Sequita Saguines, Ementas Asten Mihan Ega Petous.** _

The force of Bonnie’s magic boomed through the house, causing the books in the study to rattle and shaking some off the shelves.

It wasn’t the first time it had happened since he had come down but Damon found himself shaken every single time.

He hadn’t spoken to Bonnie —technically the witch hadn’t made herself available for a conversation— since that night in the dining room but in the past two days she had reminded him of her presence in the house once every hour.

She was holed up in that room with her witchy companion. He saw the other witch occasionally either eating or engaged in conversation with Caroline or sometimes, just resting doing nothing but Bonnie was barely available and just when he allowed himself to think that the witch was avoiding him by sleeping in the room instead of the one she was given, another spell would shake the entire house and he would know...

Bonnie Bennett — the woman that she has become, and if he allowed himself to really think, the girl she was when they first met, was not cowardly. She stood her ground back then and he imagined she hasn’t stopped doing that.

And yet, try as he may, he couldn’t reconcile the image of that carefree girl from ten years ago with the stoic woman —witch— that she is today.

He would have never guessed that bubbly girl was harboring such power in her.

He hung up the phone, sighing dramatically as he stared out the window.

He had been on the phone with some of his friends, his allies and some who would do anything for just the right amount of money.

He needed to find Sage physically now since using the spirits were taking some time. It was time to sniff out the kidnappers and pull their hearts out of their chest for using a child to manipulate her parents.

_What kind of vile people do that?_

_**Phasmatos Tribum Nas Ex Veras, Sequita Saguines, Ementas Asten Mihan Ega Petous.** _

“My God! Is she trying to pull the house off it’s foundation?” Damon exclaimed to no one in particular when another spell shook the house, rattling the windows this time.

“Not trying but she might end up doing just that.” Stefan answered from behind his brother. He had come in a few moments after Damon’s call had ended, having heard the most of it, and found his brother deep in thought so he hadn’t tried to engage in conversation. He had simply gone to pick up the books and old journals that had fallen off the shelves and was almost done putting them in their places when a new wave of magic tore through the house, rendering all his work futile. “I’ve tactfully asked the rest of the human staff to go home for a break while we update our security systems.” He added.

“I was going to ask that.” Damon says, raising an eyebrow at his brother when he saw him kneeling in the pile of books on the floor. When the younger vampire shrugged, he continued. “You were the one who insisted on hiring humans.”

“I regret that now.” Stefan replies, sullen.

“Come on, don’t beat yourself up over it. There was no way we could have known this would happen.” Damon run frustrated fingers through his hair. Waiting. He really really hated waiting.

Feeling helpless now because they still have nothing from the kidnappers is just setting him on edge.

That, and the fact that thoughts of Bonnie Bennett filled his head every chance they got, even more so than they have been in the past decade.

_**Phasmatos Tribum Nas Ex Veras, Sequita Saguines, Ementas Asten Mihan Ega Petous.** _

“Wow— she’s really going at it huh?” Stefan asked, awed as a fresh pile of books hit him on the head. It was almost beastly how the witch seemed to get more powerful with every new spell. Wasn’t it supposed to be the opposite? Four days non stop of channeling magic should have worn her down by now.

“I’m worried about her.” Caroline says from the doorway, a worried look on her face.

“Why?” Damon asked.

“Something is definitely wrong. Bonnie is very strong, a locator spell shouldn’t take this long which means there’s something that’s impeding her progress and I know her enough to know how crazy she gets when it comes to being the dominant witch.” She explained. She wasn’t a fool. She knew when Bonnie had asked for her blood that it wasn’t going to work. She wasn’t Sage’s biological mother after all but she had still given the blood and kept hope alive.

“Aah— dominance.” Damon’s voice cut through the tension in the room. “I don’t mind that in a woman although I’d say I never imagined that as a look on her.” He says casually with a faraway look on his face, almost like he was lost in fantasyland.

“Can you—“ Caroline started to say but Stefan was beside her in an instant.

“Relax, Caroline, he’s only saying that because Bonnie’s not here. He wouldn’t dare say that in her presence.”

Damon nodded, turning back to the window. “Met a few Bennett witches in my time, none of them seemed to like me so it’s not much of a surprise that your friend doesn’t like me either.” He mused.

_Oh but my Sheila had loved me... she had loved me with every fiber of her being and I know that with every fiber of mine._

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

“Hey.” Caroline says as she opened the door to the room Bonnie was using for her magic. It has been an hour and a half without the witch’s magic rocking the house off its hinges and Caroline interpreted that as Bonnie probably either working on a new spell or modifying the one she was using, for better results. That meant no spells were flying around and it was safe for her to approach the witch.

“Hey. Are you alright?” Bonnie asked, concerned when Caroline came in, and sat back, cross legged on the floor.

“Yeah I’m just worried about you. Have you eaten yet?” The vampire says as she set a bottle of water down on the table beside Bonnie. She had thought of bringing it in a glass cup but chances are that wouldn’t survive the magic in the room.

“Not since last night.” Bonnie responded after thought. She honestly didn’t even have food on her mind although another day was almost over.

“Then come eat, please.”

“Carr— there’s something familiar about this magic barrier. Something vile that I don’t like at all. I don’t want you to panic because Sage is still alive, I know that much.” She explained, getting up from where she sat and moving to her friend to take her hands in hers, reassuringly. “But the caster of the boundary spell on her is a very powerful witch and I don’t think they’re on the side of light.”

“Oh—“ was all Caroline could say.

“But, I swore on my life that I’m going to bring your baby back to you and nothing will change that.” Bonnie says firmly. She had taken the risk of telling Caroline how things stood, not to make her sad but to convince her why she needed to be vigilant and aggressive in this case. “Even if I can’t dispel the magic, I can make enough dents in it to alert them that someone is trying to get through and quicken the process of them reaching out.”

“That’s what you’ve been trying to do.” It wasn’t really a question.

“If it’s a kidnapping like your husband says, then chances are they’ll soon call in with their demands. Whatever they want is not a pressing issue. The pressing issue is to get them to confirm that your child is safe. Then we can act from there. The earlier the better.” She smiled at her best friend.

“You still need to eat.” Caroline says. She understood what was at stake and she took some comfort in knowing Bonnie was going to do everything —literally— in her power to get Sage back but she wasn’t on board with the idea of losing Bonnie to gain Sage.

“I will. In a while. I need to modify this spell.” The witch agreed. Caroline wouldn’t relent if she didn’t agree. She’s known the vampire long enough to know she would sedate her and force the food down her throat if she resisted.

“I’m going into the kitchen myself to cook for you so promise me—“

“I’ll eat it. Anything you cook Carr.” Bonnie smiled and returned the hug her friend gave her before stepping back.

Caroline stopped at the door, turning back to watch Bonnie already hunched over her grimoire, a soft smile on her face.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

_**Mur vara en gartus sanguineus.**_

“Once more.” Bonnie says, clasping Luka’s arms. She has been channeling the other witch for close to an hour now, both standing in the middle of the room and chanting the new spell she modified for this purpose and still nothing.

“Bonnie... you know I’m not as powerful as you are right?” Luka asks. Daily usage of his magic, especially to the extent at which they’ve been going, has drained him drastically. He knew it was affecting her too. The nose bleeds we’re getting out of hand and the only way he hoped to put a halt in her attacks was to bow out now so she can also take a break.

“I’m sorry.” Bonnie apologized with a smile, wiping her brow with the back of her hand.

“No, I’m the one who’s sorry. I wish I could lend you my power for as long as you need and not be such a weakling.” Luka replied.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, Luka. You taught me, and gave me too much for you to be saying something like that to me. It’s a bit upsetting.”

“Alright then I won’t.”

“Good, go to your room and get some rest I’ll probably rest for a while too.”

“Promise you’ll do that.” Luka says sternly, happy that his plan was coming along perfectly.

“I will.”

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

_**Ahsorum, dolusantum, infidictus.**_

Another spell tore through the house.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Luka says calmly from behind Damon, making the vampire stop in his tracks.

Damon turned around slowly to face the other man, a skeptical look on his face. “Luka, right?”

“Yes. Luka Martin.” He nodded.

“I’m Damon Salvatore.” 

“Still doesn’t change the fact that you shouldn’t do what it looked like you were going to do.” He had walked back after going to the kitchen for a bite first before going to sleep, to give Bonnie a glass of fresh squeezed juice Caroline had asked him to bring, to find Damon at the door, almost about to open it. “Bonnie needs space to pace herself. She does that a lot, especially when it’s a case involving children.” He explained easily.

“I imagine she has hers?” Damon was fishing for information and he hated how obvious he was being.

“No. Not that I know of anyway.” Luka replied with the same casual air then stepped forward. “As a general rule, I’m not one to meddle in Bonnie’s affairs but I’m going to make an exception for you.” He says. “If you have any ideas about Bonnie Bennett, forget them.”

“Are you warning me off?” The vampire actually blinked at the audacity of the other and in the same instance, felt a sharp pang of jealousy cloud his vision.

“No, just giving you friendly advice.” Luka shrugged. “I’m sure your brother is happy to have you here— Bonnie is, well she’s a different kind of woman and I’ve not known her to mix business with pleasure.” _Except that this wasn’t business. This was passion._ Luka’s inner voice countered, causing him to sigh.

“How long have you known her?” Damon asked, curious at which point the other witch had crossed paths, just so he can decide from there if something romantic was going on —or went on, in the past— between them.

“Long enough to tell you that much, at least.” Luka replied evasively.

“I’ll keep that in mind, thank you.” He turned around to grip the door knob again, choosing to ignore Luka’s words of caution.

“I highly advise against that.” The witch says firmly from behind Damon just as another spell shook the door:

_**Faire à voir là ré.** _

Damon sighed. “There’s no rule that says I can’t wait here right?”

“None at all.” Luka agreed, moving till he was not standing beside the vampire. “Going in there is just not advisable especially when she’s so knotted about a spell and muttering offensive spells here and there. You could be caught in one.” He clarified, not wanting to give the man a wrong idea and also to ensure the Vampire didn’t go charging into the room the moment he was gone.

“Sure.” Damon nodded, resigned,

“Hey Bon! I brought you a glass of juice I’m gonna leave out here so come and drink it before getting back to work alright?” Luka called, setting the juice and coaster down on the floor by the door.

“Thanks Luka!” The other witch responded from inside the room.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

You’d think Damon would be good at waiting. Heck, he believed he was good at waiting until this very moment.

All his years of laying low, of waiting for opportune moments to strike, of spending days —sometimes months— just **waiting** and now, thirty minutes after Luka had left the glass of juice on the floor, he stood, leaning against the wall opposite the room Bonnie was in, watching little beads of condensation make their way onto the coaster till all the chill had left the drink.

And the witch was still not out of the blasted room.

He had the good sense to storm the room and throw her onto his shoulder but he had given his word to her that he wouldn’t interfere in her work and even though he could break his word easily, he found that he was physically incapable of doing that to Bonnie.

He sighed again, just as a loud crash and a thud sounded in the room. _fuck it, I’m going in._ “Sheila! Bonnie!” He called out when he opened the door and saw Bonnie, lying unconscious in the middle of the room, shards of glass lying dangerously close to her head. “Hey! Wake up! Bonnie!” He tried to shake her awake and when that failed, lifted her head off the ground and bit into his wrist to draw blood.

“No don’t...” Luka says from the doorway. He was groggy from the few minutes of sleep he had managed to get before he had been jolted awake the moment Bonnie went down. Perks of linking your magic to someone’s for years.

“I was going to—“ Damon explained, watching regrettably as the incision on his wrist started to heal.

“She’s not sick, she’s just tired. What she needs is not healing, what she needs is rest.” Luka explained. Bonnie didn’t need vampire blood. She needed several hours of sleep.

“Stubborn woman!” Damon growled before lifting her up easily into his arms. “Which way is her room?”

Luka led Damon to Bonnie’s room. The ruckus alerted Stefan who had been in the study sulking, and Caroline who had just finished cooking and was in the middle of dishing out food for Bonnie. Both supersped upstairs to see the unconscious girl lying in her bed, Damon and Luka hovering over her and wearing identical looks of worry.

“I was cooking for her...” Caroline whispered, her voice unusually small as her husband’s arm wrapped around her.

“She’ll probably feel hungry when she wakes up and eat then. Waking her up now will mean she’ll go back to that room again.” Damon says. He was mad. He was so angry at Bonnie but that was most likely born out of fear and worry.

_Why —and how— is she still able to get me to forget everything and just wish I was hers. How is she still doing that to me so **effortlessly?**_

“Yeah—“ They all seemed to agree on that even though Luka was the one who said it out loud.

“I’m staying with her.” Damon deadpanned, in a voice that brooked no argument.

“Damon.” Stefan tried.

“I’m staying.” The vampire cast a defiant look at his brother. “You and your wife need to rest... we’ll probably get very busy starting from tomorrow and you,” he turned to Luka. “...need to go back to sleep. You’re in no condition to take care of someone. That leaves me. So all of you, out of here.” He says sternly. “Oh and Caroline— can you bring the food up? Just in case she wakes up when you’re asleep.” His voice softened as he spoke to his sister-in-law.

“Am I missing something? Is there something I need to know?” Caroline asked Stefan when they were out of the room. She was well aware that damon could probably hear them but she was too curious to let it slide.

“I don’t know— all I know is that the two seem to have met before. They know each other and I know nothing more than that.” Stefan lied easily. He wished he didn’t have to, but considering Bonnie had put a silencing spell of the room before their discussion in the study, he figured there was a reason why Bonnie didn’t want Caroline to know the details of her past relationship with Damon.

“Bonnie didn’t seem fond of him but he’s the opposite.” The blond mused.

“Usually, because we stand in different sides of a relationship, even a friendship, we experience things differently and when we walk away, we walk away with different perceptions as well.”

“You think that’s it?”

“I can’t tell, love.” Stefan sighed. “All I know is, we’ll both know when the two of them confide in us.” He run his hand over his face.

Damon was right about one thing.

He wasn’t built for stress and endurance like his brother was. This whole situation was starting to take a toll on him too.


	8. Schmaltz

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bits and pieces of a past best forgotten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Trigger Warnings for this chapter.**
> 
> • Mentions of kidnapping and   
> • physical/mental abuse.
> 
> **Character Glossary for Chapter 8.**
> 
> Kai Parker — personal witch of Klaus Mikaelson, kidnapped Bonnie 9 years ago: siphon.
> 
> Lucien — first sire of Klaus Mikaelson, kidnapper, Vampire, killed by Bonnie 9 years ago.

When Bonnie woke up, it was to find Damon sitting by her bed with a worried look on his face.

“Hey.” The vampire says, getting up from his seat to help her up into a sitting position.

“Hey yourself.” She responded, voice groggy and her throat parched. She gratefully took the glass of water Damon held out to her and took several sips of it. “How long have I been out?”

“Two days.” Damon replied, taking the glass from her nimble fingers and setting it back onto the bedside table. “I mean technically, a day and a half.”

“That’s not—“ She started to say, pushing the covers off her body and slinging her legs to the side of the bed.

“You’re not going to do what I think you’re going to do.” Damon says firmly.

“What? Are you going to stop me?” She sneered as she stood up, stretching her legs, arms and fingers to get some life back into them.

“I intend to.” Damon walked around the bed till he was standing before her, so angry he wanted to shake her. “And so does everyone else in this house so I suggest for the next few hours you listen to us.”

Bonnie was taken aback by the raw emotion in Damon’s eyes, enough to know when not to push her luck. Besides, she could wait a few minutes just to appease them. “Fine.”

“Caroline made lunch so you can go downstairs and have a meal.” Damon says and turned to leave the room, leaving a befuddled Bonnie behind.

He feared if he stayed another minute he would either lash out at her or give into his desire to take Bonnie Bennett. And make her his.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

“So?” Bonnie asked when Damon joined her on the balcony. She had been standing there for more than an hour now, just watching the sun set over the horizon and soaking in the cool dusk breeze.

“So?” Damon threw back at her. He was so full of questions he didn’t know where to start. 

His curiosity had gotten the best of him when Bonnie had been caught in a nightmare he couldn’t shake her out of, that first night after she passed out. _David... no please not my David. Don’t take him away from me._ She had moaned.

David was the name he had given her, he knew that much. What he didn’t know was why she would be having nightmares about losing him.

So he had caved. When she didn’t wake up after a full day, he had caved and done some digging into her background. He wished he hadn’t because it had taken way too much effort to contain his anger and much more than that, to control his temper when she had woken up and tried to rush back to using her magic.

“Don’t play games with me. Why are you here?” Bonnie chided although there was no bite to her words. She was trying to relax. To absorb enough nature energy so that when she resumed her spells, she would have enough power.

“Keeping you company.” Damon replies casually, almost without thinking.

“I didn’t ask for it.” She answers.

“I’m giving it anyways.” He says with a shrug, this time turning to look at her.

Bonnie sighed, closing her eyes for a brief moment, committing to memory the bright pink shade of the Virginia sky, basking in the last rays of the sun and turned away, leaning on the balcony to give her full attention to him. “Are you going to, at any point, tell me about yourself?”

“What do you want to know about me?” Damon asked, a slow, pleased smile making its way onto his face.

“I don’t **want** to know anything about you beyond what I need to know, just for the purpose of finding Sage.” Bonnie retorted, almost annoyed at the effrontery of Damon to act like she was curious about him. Even more annoyed because she was indeed curious about him.

“Is that the only reason why?” Damon probed.

“What other reason could there be?” She asked, trying to hold onto what little dignity she had when it came to him. How much dignity can she have in the presence of a man she had willingly given herself to, over and over again only a few days after they had met? A man who had abandoned her soon after. 

_How much dignity can she possibly muster in Damon’s presence._

“I’m asking you.” The vampire’s words cut through the night air.

“Alright.” She relented. “Am I curious about you? Yes. Is it personal or professional? A little bit of both. That honest enough for you?” Sticking to the truth was always a good way to go. And in situations where you can’t be fully truthful, half truths are the next best thing. She knew that much.

“Let’s walk farther away from the house.” Damon says, offering his arm to her while pointing in the general direction of the woods outside, with his free hand. “It’s quieter out there.”

Bonnie’s eyes squinted, perusing him. She wondered if he was thinking that getting her out of the house and into the woods will bring back memories of their night in this house. She wondered if his plan was to grip her in nostalgia and cripple her. The thought of that possibility hardened her resolve. If that was what he wanted, she’d give him a run for his money, reminding him that she was no longer the naive girl from ten years ago. “Sure why not? If privacy is what you want, then by all means let’s go.” She says, ignoring the arm he offered and walking out and down the stairs on her own.

Damon followed her until they were out of the house, watching her from behind till he says; “While you were sleeping, I got too curious I had someone run a check on you.” When he was sure they were out of earshot from the vampires in the house.

“What did you just say?” Bonnie froze in her tracks, feeling the blood rush out of his face. When she turned around, she was furious. “You had no right to—“

“Did you ever remember what happened to you? Do you remember who beat you and left you broken? Who almost killed you?” Damon continued as though oblivious to the fuming witch before him. Something must have shifted Bonnie’s perspective because the witch took several calming breaths and then finally spoke.

“I never forgot.”

“Were you raped?” He continued, afraid of the answer even as he asked.

“What?”

“Whatever happened, changed you, _Meli’āki_ , so I assume it’s something truly horrific.” Damon powered through. When his contact had called him with information on what happened to Bonnie Bennett 9 years ago, he had wanted to keep probing but told himself he needed to calm down first. He was too furious with the knowledge that the witch had been kidnapped and brutally wounded nine years ago that he feared he would abandon Stefan’s child and go on a killing spree if he knew more.

That had been the plan. To not inquire any further and yet, here he stood, probing for the information directly from the source.

“No one would call me an angel these days. That name stopped applying to me nine years ago. I’m nothing like the sweet and innocent girl I was back then.” Bonnie cut through his thoughts, firmly.

“Aren’t you?” Damon asked, lifting a hand to brush his knuckles along her cheek and quirked a brow when Bonnie flinched and moved away from his touch. “You’re skittish. Do I scare you?”

“Once burned twice shy.” Bonnie replied with a casualness she didn’t feel.

“It’s bitten, but sure.” Damon corrected, eyes appraising the witch carefully. “You still didn’t answer me. Shall I run another check?”

Bonnie felt panic rise in her. She didn’t want him to find out the extent of what happened to her nine years ago. She hadn’t wanted to tell him at all but he knew some of it, and she imagined he would keep probing till he was satisfied. “There’s no need. I wasn’t raped although I was threatened but I wasn’t.” She provided, hating the fact that as much as she tried to hide from her memories, they were still raw in her mind.

“Why didn’t you tell the police that you remembered what had happened to you?” Damon inquired.

“I needed them to think I didn’t remember them. I needed them to leave me alone and I was in no condition to fight after that. I was too— too broken.” That much was true. Physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually she had been broken to the point where she had to kill whatever was left of herself in order to survive. Not live. Survival was the most she could wish for.

“But refusing to say something meant they got away, free to do it to another innocent girl.” 

“I doubt that.” Bonnie countered confidently, then seeing Damon’s questioning look, she sighed. “Look, the men who took me, they weren’t rapists. They kidnapped me for a reason ... it was just unfortunate that I didn’t have the answers they needed.”

“They mistook you for someone else?” His frown was getting deeper and although he knew it wasn’t possible, Damon was certain he was starting to run a fever. His skin felt hot for no reason.

“No. No they had it right up until that point at least.” She looked up at him, feeling small, realizing that he was quite literally _the only one_ she can talk to about this. Yes, she had confided in Caroline when the girl had visited her upon hearing the news of her predicament but still, Damon... Damon was the only one she could share this pain with whether she wanted to admit it to herself or not. “They followed me from Mystic Falls to Los Alamos.” She offered quietly.

“Why would—?” Damon started to ask, then recognition churned in his mind, his expression getting darker as the wheels turned. “This was a year after we met here, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.” Bonnie nodded. “A year and four months.” She clarified, then swallowed when the past threatened to overwhelm her once more. “When _he_ found me, he said he had been searching for you. Someone told someone who in turn told someone till the information reached him that you and I had been together in Mystic Falls.”

“Did you get his name?” Damon growled, reaching out to grab the witch by her shoulders, almost pleading as the gravity of the past became clear to him. “Bonnie— tell me his name.”

“Do you have that many people who would want to kill you that you can’t pinpoint straight away who it is?”

“Please.” He chokes out.

“Well, we never introduced ourselves but I heard a woman call him Kai. From the little I heard, the other person with him was called Lucien and the one calling the shots over the phone was Klaus.” She replied as carefully as she could, telling herself that she was stronger than her emotions. She would not cave from the weight of them. 

For a brief moment, Damon’s grip on her shoulders tightened and she saw recognition spark in his eyes before he let go of her, turned to a tree and threw several punches at it, accompanied by expletives. When he turned to face her once more, Bonnie noticed a huge chunk of the tree’s stem was missing from his attack. “I see you remember him then.”

“Oh I remember him. Klaus Mikaelson. He was a monster.” Damon was fuming... no, it wasn’t just anger coursing through his veins. It was pain, and regret, and hatred, and fear— and pure, unadulterated fury.

“Why would he—?” Bonnie whispered.

Damon glanced away, running his palms over his face, unable to look at her. “I was new to the business back then. I wasn’t so good at covering my tracks and— my God, Bonnie... I had no idea he would find out about you.” He turned towards her then, and seeing the look on her face, continued. “Don’t you see? That’s the reason I left. To protect you. I knew I was being selfish, being stupid into thinking that I could have a life with you no matter how much I wanted it. Dammit!” He kicked at the soil again.

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Bonnie scoffed, the sound causing Damon to look at her curiously. Before he could ask more of her, she quickly asked: “Tell me why Klaus wanted to kill you.”

“It’s complic—“ he started to say.

“Dammit you owe me that much! He came after me, kidnapped me and my...” She stopped. Taking calming breaths. She couldn’t believe Damon was not going to tell her that much and the anger was rattling the lid she had duck-taped onto her emotions. 

“He tortured me! Do you hear me, Damon? He tortured me because he believed I knew where you were, that we still kept in touch because...” She swallowed around the knot in her throat, unable to keep up the strong act anymore. “I told so many lies, anything I could to save our... to save my life dammit you owe me that much!” She cried.

Despite her best efforts to keep the horrifying memories at bay, they crept into her consciousness one by one. Fragments, flashes, a sound and touch, pieces falling into place like a jigsaw puzzle, forming a picture of the worst days of her life. A picture too horrible to look at.

“There were two of them... one, Kai I’m sure, had touched me the moment we met and I literally felt my magic being drained from me. There was nothing I could do... I was helpless. They tortured and beat me up, threatened me with all kinds of things and then the call came in.” She whispered, recounting the final day of her kidnapping as much as the fragments would allow, unable to stop the tears that flowed down her cheeks.

“I think it was Niklaus over the phone but I was too far gone to hear anything beyond his name. They started discussing how to kill me.” She gulped, wiping her tears angrily off her face only for new ones to replace them. “One held a knife to my throat and the other used magic to twist and break my bones till all I knew was pain... and still I didn’t want to die. I was staying alive for... I _needed_ to stay alive.”

“One of them —the one who had taken my magic— left at some point, almost two days later and left me with the other one... the sadist. Lucien. I think that was his name. He said he was better in bed than you, that if I was protecting you because of the sex, he had years —centuries— of experience over you. He said he could show me—...” Bonnie squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn’t hear herself anymore from the loud clanging in her head and Damon cupped her face in his palms.

He was regretting asking her. He was regretting watching her fall apart before him and having no idea what to do for her. “My Grams... I didn’t know when... I later found out she had done a life force binding spell on me. Somehow through all that, I found a link to magic that I know now came from my grams... she died in her last effort to save us... to save me and... she died to save me so dammit you owe me at least that much!” She trembled. Her whole body trembled from the force of that memory.

Damon kisses her cheek, then her forehead while cupping her face. Her tears face in his arms. “I am so sorry... I’m so sorry.” He repeated over and over, like he was chanting one of her spells. “I was stupid to think I could have you for a brief period without harming you. I am so sorry.”

Bonnie tried to calm herself down. She would not lose it completely, she told herself. She would not lose the control she had worked hard and long for nine years to get. She lifted her chin, looking at him through tears eyes. “Why did Klaus want you dead?”

“Because he believed I killed his son.” Damon deadpanned. There was no reason to hide that much from her.

A sharp pain slit through her and Bonnie expected blood to start oozing out anytime soon but it didn’t. The sharp cuts of pain continued as a small voice whispered inside her head, _an eye for an eye_. “Did you—?”

Damon’s hands dropped to her shoulders, his eyes fixed on hers, unable to tell a lie, unable to deny her the truth. “Yes. I did.” He admitted. “Marcellus was a vile creature when I met him. He was in shady deals with some dark magic users which caused him to be practically fearless. He bordered on tyranny and the people in his town were terrified of him so much that the witches contracted me to end his life. I didn’t know what I was getting into when I picked the job— all I knew was that I needed to get rid of him for the peace of the people. He was stronger, older, faster, fortified by witchcraft. If I didn’t have the power of about 50 ancestral witches on my side, I most likely would have died that day.” He swallowed, pulling Bonnie into his arms.

It was a part of his past he had tried to forget also.

Bonnie wondered if it was okay to find comfort in Damon’s arms and realized she needed him. If only for a brief moment, she needed _him_ and no one else so she was willing to indulge in this particular sin, so help her God. She had needed him nine years ago. She hadn’t even been angry about what she had had to go through. She wouldn’t have hated him as much as she had grown to hate him over the years, if he had just been there nine years ago to hold her through it all as her world fell apart before her eyes.

“When I got out of the army a century ago, I decided to work independently. Initially I worked with the government but it was becoming obvious that my immortality would be noticed after a while so I faked my death on a mission and went into hiding, choosing to do my own freelance work. The lines were blurred on right and wrong and most days I wondered if I was doing more harm than good but I got up and did the work I convinced myself I was the only one capable of doing.”

Damon sighed, slowly letting go of Bonnie for fear of crushing her with the amount of anxiety building inside him. “I went by many names back then but most of those who heard of me called me _el Veloz_ ... for professional purposes I took on many aliases. I think I went by Kaleb back then... it was the name I gave to the witches when they contracted me.” Damon whispered.

“Kaleb—“

“Why?” The vampire asked.

“That’s the name they kept asking me. They kept asking me where Kaleb was.”

“And you didn’t know _who_ Kaleb was.”

“I figured you were the one they were looking for when they mentioned our two weeks together in Mystic Falls.”

“It was after I had finished the job that I was told about Niklaus Mikaelson, the adopted father of Marcellus. It was the first I heard of the original vampires and the witches of the French Quarter, in an effort to appease me for the danger they have put me in for life, performed a cloaking spell on me to keep me safe and yet, I looked over my shoulder for decades, always guarding my back and cutting all ties with Stefan.” He sighed. “I shouldn’t tell you more than I already have.”

“I’ve not afraid, Damon. I haven’t felt fear since Klaus and his people took everything from me nine years ago. I have nothing to lose.” She says firmly. The tears have stopped sometime during Damon’s tale. She frowned. “Is there a connection to Sage’s kidnapping?”

“I swear to you that I don’t know. There’s no way they can connect me to Stefan. No one, except Stefan and Caroline —and now you and Luka— know my relationship with Stefan. I made sure of that. You were the only one I even told that I was friends with him. I usually make sure never to leave any trace to Stefan so he can continue to live the life of peace he’s always dreamed of.”

Bonnie gasped, eyes going wide.

“What is it?” Damon frowned, looking at her in worry.

“I told them. I told them.” She choked out, clasping a palm over her mouth as her whole body shook with horror. If she was the reason Caroline was going through this—

“You told who what?” Damon inquired, confused.

“Kai. I told him that we attended a party at the Salvatore mansion.”

“Why would you tell him—?” He was lost for a moment before realizing he never warned her. Never told her he was on the run, selfishly didn’t even compel her to forget him. He had just... left.

“I told him truths and lies, Damon. Half truths and full truths. Made up stories and poured out my soul to him. Anything to save... anything to save myself.” She cried.

“There’s no reason to believe that Klaus is behind Sage’s kidnapping and it’s been years since you told him that. There’s no way he would wait for almost a decade before making a move.” Damon denied. He would not like to believe that the two weeks of passion he had allowed himself to indulge in, could ruin the lives of the people he loved the most. Bonnie, and now stefan and Caroline.

“Because you don’t want to believe you’ve made another person you care about a casualty of your secret war?” Bonnie voiced out Damon’s fears perfectly.

“You suffered a lot Bonnie, but you aren’t a casualty.” Damon says with a pained smile, his knuckles brushing the tear streaks off her cheeks.

“Look again, Damon.” Bonnie whispered, daring him to. “The Bonnie you know, _the Sheila you knew,_ didn’t make it out of that situation alive. She’s buried in a small box in my family home back in Los Alamos.” 

Damon frowned. That was unusually vivid. “You aren’t telling me everything. Why?”

“I told you what you _need_ to know.”

“I see.”

“No you don’t but let’s assume you do.” The witch responded casually, pulling her mask back on.

A few minutes of vulnerability was all she could allow herself. That she still felt intensely for him, that her pulse picked up just from locking eyes with him, that when he smiled he reminded her of a time in her life that she craved more than anything else.

She resolved to deal with that _after_ they found and got Sage back. Not before.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

The call came in at 3:00pm. Bonnie and Damon were out of the house which meant stefan was the one who answered it.

The phone was on loudspeaker so Luka and Caroline could hear what was being said. The kidnappers had made their demands. 3 million dollars and for the release of a vampire from a sealed tomb in Mystic Falls.

Damon heard the words the moment he was with earshot and grabbed Bonnie, superspeeding them straight to the study. He was fuming, ready to lash out at the one who spoke only to feel his throat clog up, the words not coming out.

He turned accusing eyes to Bonnie who was glaring at him.

Sighing, she stepped into the room and took the phone from Stefan. “We’ll give you 10 million dollars and no vampires.” She says firmly over the phone. She hadn’t discussed money with stefan but was sure if the vampire had to rob a bank to get his child back, he would.

“The terms are not up for negotiation.” The voice over the phone said. Calmly, sophisticated.

“What about twenty?” She offered once more. If for nothing at all, just to confirm her suspicion.

“Still no deal.” The caller says firmly this time. “Look, the vampire in the tomb is only one part of the deal. You’re going to get her and her doppelgänger for us. Plus the 3 million dollars.”

“Why do you need her? We need more information on her and we need proof that Sage is still alive. Pardon me for not trusting you.” Bonnie demanded. She didn’t need to see Caroline to know her friend was in panic mode and Stefan looked like he was about to take the phone from her and beg the kidnappers for their forgiveness.

“You will have it.” The other person confirmed and she could hear a collective sigh of relief —hers included—.

“What?”

“Your proof.” He affirmed. “In return, we expect Katerina and her doppelgänger in a week.”

“A week? We don’t even know what she looks...” Bonnie was in the middle of protesting when she caught the identical looks on the Salvatore brothers’ face. Whoever she was, the two at least knew her. “sure. We’ll start the countdown from the moment we have proof that Sage is still alive.”

“You’re the witch, eh?” A different, more sinister voice sounded over the phone, followed by a simple; _“Fantastic.”_ before the line dropped.

“Who’s Katerina and why do I have a feeling you know her?” Bonnie looked between the brothers.

Stefan, who’s eyes were fixed on Damon, answered. “She’s the one who turned us.” His gaze left his brother to fall on Bonnie. “Our sire.”

“But Katherine died a long time ago in that fire.” Damon whispered, almost ghostly.

“What if—?” Caroline started to say, only to notice the horrified look on Bonnie’s face. “Bonnie... Bonnie!!” She called out to no avail.

The witch had gone still, frozen in place, caught in her own mind fighting demons that no one else could see and no one else could help her with.

Her entire body trembled but she couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, terror gripping her as her nightmares became a reality.


	9. Whilom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crying...—

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **MAJOR TRIGGER WARNINGS.**
> 
> **•— Death.  
>  •— Torture.  
> •— Gore.**

_**If you don’t, you’re always going to wonder what could have happened, and so would I.”** _

_It always started with those words._

_If you don’t come with me you’re always going to wonder what could have happened. Bonnie heard Damon’s words repeating over and over in her mind. Her head begin to swim; the world went silent around her and a terrifying sense of loneliness washed over her — and then everything went black._

_In the next moment, Damon’s face was gone, replaced by another, — older, harsher and wearing a menacing look— gripping her arm tightly._

_The magic... her magic... she felt it leaving her body and she was helpless against this cruel man’s power. She tried to open her mouth, to ask him where Damon had gone but before she could open her mouth, he slapped her forcefully across the face._

_Bonnie licked her lips and tasted her blood. This is bad, her brain told her candidly._

_“You will tell me what I need to know this very instant or both of you will die.” He threatened._

_“No. I don’t know what you want but anything... I’ll do anything please don’t hurt him.” Bonnie cried desperately._

_“Where is your lover? What’s his real name?” He spat out, using magic to shoot a sharp pain up her spine that made her cry out in pain._

_“Lover? I don’t have a—” the second slap was harder —if that was even possible— than the first, the echo of it hitting the walls and bouncing back to her ears, only terrifying her further._

_“Don’t lie to me, witch!” He spat out, definitely not pleased by her answer._

_“I’m not lying. I swear I’m telling the truth. I don’t have a lover. Believe me.” She pleaded, trying not to give in to the fear that was threatening to cripple her. She had to stay strong. Not just for her sake but for David’s sake... **her little David.**_

_He grabbed her by her hair then, forcing her to look into his deceptively warm eyes. How could he do this much evil while wearing such a pure and sincere look? “”The man you were together with in Mystic Falls.... wasn’t he your lover? Now tell me where he is while I’m asking nicely.”_

_“I don’t know. I swear on my life I have no idea where he is. It’s been more than a year since he left. He didn’t tell me anything else he just left.” She choked out, feeling pain start to fill every pore of her being._

_“See now I know you’re lying. There’s no way he’s not in touch with you. Unless that child is not his.”_

_“My baby... please don’t hurt my baby. I swear I don’t know anything more about that man.”_

_“You’ll pay dearly for lying to me, witch.”_

_“I’m not lying. Why would I lie?” She asked, her entire body trembling with pain. He was doing something to her. He wasn’t saying any spells and he was barely touching her but the pain running through her was unbearable._

_“To protect him.” He spat out in obvious disdain._

_And then he was gone._

_But her relief was short-lived and the silence only lasted a few heartbeats before the crying started._

_**The crying.** _

_And the helplessness that followed._

_“Please don’t hurt him.” She begged, shouting to no one in particular, aware that she was the only one in this dark room. “I’ll do anything you ask please don’t hurt my baby!”_

_His scent suddenly overwhelmed her. The talcum from his baby powder, the lavender oil she put in his hair, the way his clothes smelled of fresh flowers. His body warmth— the way he giggled when grams did a magic trick for him..._

_And then suddenly, the crying stopped._

_Her brain screamed._

_Every fiber of her being screamed with terror but she was immobilized, paralyzed into stillness till his cruel face was hovering over hers again._

_When he spoke, the words, his tone and expression was pure filth. “I held my hand over his little mouth and nose till he stopped breathing. It gave me immense pleasure to kill Kaleb’s son. Klaus will be proud of me.”_

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

“No!” Bonnie screamed. She had to jolt herself out of her memories, had to force herself to abandon the weakness that came with succumbing to her memories. “No!” Her eyes focused, noticing for the first time since the call ended, that everyone in the room was looking at her with identical looks of concern.

Caroline was gripping her shoulders tightly and Bonnie saw enough to see the determination in her friend’s eyes. There is no way Caroline was letting her off the hook this time and a simple threat of snapping her neck was not going to cut it this time.

She shrugged off her friend’s hold on her and turned on her heel. In her haste, she bumped into Damon —who looked just as determined as Caroline did— and run out of the room, ignoring the worried shouts for her.

Rushing outside because she felt close to suffocation indoors, she felt the late sun’s rays on her face, a breeze blowing over her face even as she stopped dead.

The cries echoed inside her mind again. Soft whimpers, then fussy sobs of an infant followed. _I’m coming, baby... mommy’s coming._ but her baby was nowhere to be found. She searched frantically for her crying baby but she couldn’t find him—couldn’t save him.

_please, David, please stop crying. Mommy’s coming to find you. I’ll make everything better again I promise._

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

“Bonnie. Hey Bon...” Caroline whispers as she squatted in front of her friend. “here, lemme help you up.” She reaches out to touch Bonnie’s shoulders, helping the witch up into a standing position.

She had won the war— technically, that was what it had been. When Bonnie had rushed out of the room, Damon had almost immediately taken off after the witch. His reflexes were astounding to say the least.

The older vampire had been convinced he was the perfect person to talk Bonnie out of her current state and no matter how many times Caroline had asked him to tell her why he was so sure he was the one best to do it, he had remained tight lipped about it.

There was something fishy going on between those two and Caroline was so curious to find out but she was also actively trying to respect Bonnie’s privacy.

The two of them had been through a lot and she still carried the guilt of her part in what happened to Bonnie ten years ago.

It was a messed up twist of fate that arranged for her to be turned into a vampire —and taken away from town by her mother to escape her vampire hunter father— the very summer that’s bonnie was supposed to visit her.

Every time she thought about the events that followed that dreadful summer, and the ordeal Bonnie had to go through—something which happened a lot more than she would like to admit— she couldn’t shake off the sense of guilt that came with knowing that if only she had been in town... if she had been around when Bonnie came to mystic Falls for the first time that summer, perhaps she wouldn’t have met that stranger who had charmed her and left her to handle his mess.

If only.

It was also why she was always the one to deter Bonnie from coming to Mystic Falls. Her wedding, the day Sage came home from the orphanage and the appointment of Bonnie as Sage’s godmother were all done over the phone or a laptop.

So why— why had she allowed a moment of fear to make her call Bonnie back to town and make her face her demons when it was so obvious that the witch was not ready to do that?

“I’m so sorry.” She whispered, the hand that was holding onto Bonnie’s shoulders trembled lightly as her thoughts passed judgement on her.

“What?” Bonnie whispered with a frown. She was slowly coming to, and was afraid that she had missed something that Caroline had said before hearing the apology.

“I shouldn’t have asked you to —” The blonde started to elaborate.

“You swallow your next words, Caroline.” Bonnie glared at her best friend. In the time she has been here, every time Caroline had apologized to her, she found herself feeling worse. The last thing she wanted was for Caroline to **regret** calling her for help when she **needed** her help. The very last thing.

“You’re having such a hard time I think it’s best if you go back home.” Caroline finished in spite of Bonnie’s protest and warning not to.

“I’m not leaving.” The witch responded, determined.

“Then how come—?”

“Look, can’t you just pretend not to notice?” Bonnie cut through Caroline’s question and realized almost immediately how impossible that request was. She knew, if the roles were reversed, there was no way she would pretend not to notice, and ignore Caroline if she was in as much anguish as she was in now. Hell, the main reason why she had jumped into the next available flight into a town she didn’t want to come back to, without a contingency plan, was **because** she couldn’t ignore her best friend’s anguish.

The witch sighed in silent defeat before fessing up. “It’s Damon.” She says simply.

“What about him?” Caroline asked with a frown. She was confused to say the very least. Yes, she knew something was up between the two, but she didn’t see how Damon came to be a part of the conversation they were having.

“He’s David.” Bonnie replies, then finally jolted awake to cast a quick look towards the house. She didn’t need vampire senses to know that the inhabitants of that house were listening keenly to their conversation. With a flick of her wrist, she cast a silencing spell. 

She couldn’t leave anything to chance. Especially with caroline involved.

“Dav— No!” The blonde gasped. Eyes wide when it dawned fully on her what Bonnie was trying to tell her. “No way!” She affirmed once more.

“I know.” Bonnie replied with a sigh and moved to sit back down on the wide steps that led up to the main doors of the mansion. Turns out standing upright required a lot more energy than she had to spare.

“No, I mean that’s impossible!” Caroline rounded on her best friend. She should know that because she had tried —god she had tried so hard— to have a baby of her own and found out that was impossible because she was a vampire... practically dead.

“You think I don’t know that?” Bonnie asked, looking up at Caroline. “I’ve been struggling to come up with a tangible reason ... some kind of explanation for that.” 

“Could it be...?” She dreaded the thought even as it came to her mind but what were the chances of Bonnie being with a human—without her knowledge? “Some other person perhaps?” She voiced out her dreadful thoughts.

“No, it’s him alright.” The witch confirmed with a slow nod of her head. “Grams didn’t say much about David junior but she always said he was special... some kind of unnatural occurrence. I only realized what she meant after finding out his father was a vampire.” And she had been trying to figure out how come, since the night she had realized Damon was Stefan’s older brother and was a vampire like his younger brother.

Somehow, in the midst of casting tracking spells to find Sage and creating new ones, she had been plagued by thoughts of Damon. Thoughts that centered around making sense of the anomaly that their son had been and realizing there was no way she could confide in anyone —not Caroline, and definitely not Damon— until she at least made sense of this freak show that was her past.

“Vampires can’t procreate.” Caroline says. At this point, that statement was starting to sound like the Vampire’s creed to her.

“But witches have been known to maintain or upset the natural balance of things at will.” The witch reasoned. It was the only reasonable idea. Every other thought pointed to the fact that she had been the variable that affected that change.

“So you think you’re the one who caused it?” The blonde asked, extremely curious.

“All I know is, back then I was so in the clouds every time we made love I wished with all my heart to start a family with him.” Bonnie explained honestly.

It was a bit of a shame to her that her eighteen year old self was so naive that she would be thinking about getting pregnant for a man she barely knew. Also why she never even suggested that he used condoms but after finding out he was a vampire, she imagined that was the most effective of all birth control. “Maybe it was the love I felt or the fact I was so naïve back then that sex equaled love to me.” She whispered.

“Bonnie...” something about the way the witch said that made Caroline feel bad for her.

“Or maybe..” she started to say, just as her thoughts latched onto something. She stood up, regaining energy back into her legs. “No! No way!” She exclaimed, the wheels in her head kicking into overdrive. “How in hell did it skip me?”

“What?” Caroline asked, Sure she had missed something.

“The burial ground.” Bonnie replied, mostly talking to herself than to Caroline.

“What?” The blond asked, confused because she didn’t know how a cemetery had anything to do with the current conversation.

“The site of the burial of a hundred Bennett witches. My ancestors.” Bonnie whispered, definitely caught up in an epiphany. How had that skipped her for days? “That’s the missing variable.”

“You think they got you pregnant?” Caroline couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“I think they might have removed the variables that stopped us from having a baby at the time but...” Bonnie shook the dust off her dress and started to climb back into the house, careful to modify the silencing spell so that it would move with them since she was sure Caroline would follow her. She knew now what she had to do.

It was so clear to her now, her eyes almost hurt from all that clarity.

“What about Damon?” The Vampire asked, easily keeping up with her best friend’s fast strides up the stairs and through the house. “How much does he know?”

“Only to the point of the kidnapping.” Bonnie responded, catching sight of Damon down the hallway. He was standing in front of a door that looked like his room —the same room he had made love to her in, ten years ago—. A quick glance at him and she pushed her door open before he would get any ideas, Caroline following close behind and shutting the door.

“Will you tell him?”

“No. I don’t think I will.” Bonnie replies with a shrug, pulling drawers open and picking some things before heading back out and towards the spell room, Caroline still following close behind her. “Even if I will, I need to have all the answers first.”

“Sure you’re not making excuses?” The blonde asked.

Bonnie stopped in her tracks, taking a deep breath before smiling sadly at Caroline. “Perhaps both.” She admitted, continuing into the room. “It’s him.” She offered, realizing if she was coming clean to caroline about everything, she might as well go all out.

“What?”

“The one who killed my baby.” She turned to face her friend then. “Kai is the other voice I heard on the phone.”

“No.” The vampire gasped. She wasn’t sure if it was pain for her best friend, or fear for her daughter being with a man capable of killing a nine months old harmless baby that filled her with so much anguish.

“It’s him... and I’ll be damned if I let him harm another child on my watch.” Bonnie says decidedly, bending down to pluck the candles from where they had been stuck to the floor and throwing them into her duffel bag.

“What are you—?” Caroline asked.

“Packing.” The witch answered, then gave her best friend a Cheshire grin. “I’m going to see if my ancestors are pleased enough to see me again after ten years.”

“Really?”

“Really.” She says. “Kai wouldn’t know what hit him.”

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

“Is she alright?”  
“Is she sick?”  
All three inhabitants of the room asked the moment Caroline walked in.

“She’ll be fine.” Caroline responds honestly. “Maybe not now but she’ll be fine.”

“Is there anything I can do?” Damon asked. He knew something had been up earlier when he had seen those two talking but couldn’t hear a word of what was being said. They were up to something— or they were hiding something from the rest of them and he was too curious for his own good.

“No.” Caroline watched Damon pensively. She couldn’t for the life of her decide what to feel about him. 

Anger that he left Bonnie alone after making the witch fall in love with him? 

Was it anger that Bonnie was kidnapped and tortured, her son killed within earshot, **because** of his baggage?

Was it pity because he had had something rare— something she and her husband would kill for. A child of their own, and something she was more than certain Damon, no matter how heartless, would have been happy about— and had lost it... without even knowing it?

Or was it sadness knowing her best friend obviously bore feelings from him and it looked —so obviously— that he also loved Bonnie, and yet a barrier he was oblivious about, was standing in their way?

She sighed, turning to Luka. “Perhaps you can help.” She pushed her confusing thoughts about her brother-in-law aside. “She’s on her way to meet her ancestors. With enough magic power on her side, she thinks she can break through any enchantment around Sage.”

“Ancest— no.” Damon started to say, then stopped, shaking his head. “Never mind.”

Everything made sense to him now.

His Sheila, wanting to visit that grim site ten years ago, somehow feeling _so at peace_ in that place... the whispers he had convinced himself were a figment of his imagination.

The burial site of a hundred Bennett Witches, the site of their makeshift home for two weeks.

He had met Sheila’s entire family back then.

 _They were practically married now._ He found himself smiling in spite of himself.

He couldn’t wait to run his theory of their spiritual marriage, by Bonnie... and watch her throw a fit.


	10. Chimera

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Chimera •—•**
> 
> _A thing which is hoped for but is illusory or impossible to achieve._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Character glossary for Chapter 10.**
> 
> —• Rebecca Mikaleson — Original Vampire, sister of Niklaus Mikaelson, sister of Freya Mikaelson, girlfriend of Matt Donovan.
> 
> —• Freya Mikaelson — recent addition to the Mikaleson family. Sister of Rebecca and Klaus. Ruthless Witch.

It took Bonnie longer than it would have if she was, say, a vampire but considering how counterproductive that would be, she couldn’t help chuckling when the familiar site came into view.

The feelings of pain and overwhelming anguish threatened to subdue her as memories of her time with Damon, ten years ago came to mind.

Every step she took brought her closer to the epicenter of her agony in Mystic Falls but Bonnie refused to be intimidated by her past. Not when she had finally figured out what she needed to do to break through the enchantments covering Sage.

The wind howled dramatically, picking up her short hair and flittering it about the moment she stepped foot on the grounds.

_yes...home_

There was something almost therapeutic with knowledge. Ten years ago when she had first stepped on this land, she had been overwhelmed by the feeling of peace it brought her. Somehow, connecting to her ancestors back then —from that place of youthful naïveté— was a question of finding peace and relief.

Now, connecting to her ancestors —as an older, desperate, full fledged Bennett witch who understood her magic and the extent of her power— was an issue of power.

_Pure, unadulterated power._

She took a shaky breath, breathing in deeply and letting it out slowly.

She pulled her sneakers off, feeling power course through her the moment her bare feet hit the ground.

_This is it.... this is what I’ve been missing._ she thought to herself.

It was safe to say that her ancestors were pleased to see her.

Safe to say that much.

Quickly, without wasting time, she pulled off the plaid shirt she had been wearing over the tank top she wore and tied it around her waist, rummaging through her bag to start pulling out her Grimoires and candles and powder. The earlier she started, the better.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

Sage’s stomach rumbled with hunger. She had been given a loaf of bread and water several hours ago and nothing more. She was unable to accurately judge the passing of time because of the room she was in— dark, damp and dirty with no ventilation whatsoever.

The first few nights —judging strictly by her body’s level of exhaustion and the length of sleep that followed— she had cried herself to sleep, wishing and praying for her mother to come and save her.

She was still wearing her baby pink silk gown, now wrinkled and filthy from being tossed around, her feet bare and dirty.

“I thought it was a bad dream... but it’s real, isn’t it?” she whispered to no one in particular.

She had taken to talking to herself, imagining and hoping that one of these times she would ask a question and her mother’s loving voice will answer her. Her father’s strong arms will wrap around her reassuringly and tell her it was all a bad dream and nothing more.

That everything will be alright.

“I hate this place!” She screamed, hoping someone would hear her and at the same time, fearing that she would be heard. “It’s awful in here! It’s cold and it stinks!” She sobbed.

She had lived the first few years of her life in an orphanage with several other children, enduring years of congestion and overcrowding as well as the skin rashes that came with that— but nothing had prepared her for this situation.

She heard a noise. Briefly, and then it was gone. She convinced herself after a while that she had imagined it but then suddenly, the door, which was bolted from the back, was thrown open to reveal the man who had been bringing her food.

“Where am I?” She screamed. “Tell me where I am. Why are you keeping me here?”

The man ignored her.

Looking at the doorway, she allowed herself to get brave for a moment and launched at the man, kicking him repeatedly. Her plan was to take him by surprise and when he was down, run with everything she had, out the door.

It was naive thinking but she believed that if she could get outside this dingy room, she could find her way outside and run till she reached her parents.

The man gave her a backhanded slap across her face and flung her across the room.

She screamed from the pain, Sure her ankle was twisted from the awkward fall as pain shot through her leg.

When he left the room —she was glad he didn’t do more than that and just left— Sage tried to get up onto her feet and found that she couldn’t. The pain in her leg was almost unbearable.

She crawled to the food that had been haphazardly placed on the floor. It didn’t matter how unpleasant it looked and tasted, she knew if she was to successfully find her way out of this nightmare, she would need her energy.

And she would take it from anywhere. Including less than sanitary food.

Her parents did not raise her to be weak and crying for the past few days was enough. She’s dealt with her weakness and fear and now she had no tears left to cry.

Especially not when it just became clear to her that she could be killed by these savages.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

Rebecca Mikaleson sat at the window of the three storey house that currently belonged to her brother and his goons, staring out at the view before her. 

She has found solace in the peaceful town beneath, locals going about their business unaware of the daily turmoil she was subjected to.

Her bane, _Niklaus._

She loved her brother more than anything and she was convinced beyond any doubt, that in his own twisted way, Klaus loved her. He had a stupid way of showing it—usually in the form of a dagger through the heart— but still, she chose to forgive him.

She sighed for what felt like a millionth time that day. Her dream, for as long as she could remember, was to find a man who loved her thoroughly, —if that man did not fear Klaus, that would be an added bonus— and start her own family.

Nothing will please her as much as being able to have her own kids but after being alive for a thousand years, even she, knew that was pushing it.

Over the last century —for those times that she was awake, anyway— she had fallen madly in love with two men. Men she has believed were going to be her happy place before her brother happened.

Marcellus was going to be her happily ever after. He was going to be the one she lived her life with... and then Klaus had provided him with an offer he couldn’t resist.

She couldn’t even blame her brother for that. It was Marcel who had chosen power over love, Marcel who had picked a bite over a kiss. It was Marcel who had gotten so power drunk, he had gotten himself killed.

Marcel.

And the worst part of it all... she wasn’t even conscious when the man she loved spiraled, she wasn’t conscious when Marcel needed someone to set him straight.

_She had had a dagger in her chest._

And then there was Stefan Salvatore.

Stefan’s memories of her had been wiped clean —she understood that was quite possibly the most selfless thing her brother ever did for her— to keep him safe from Mikael but it had still hurt when eight years ago, she had heard about him in Mystic Falls and gone there to find the vampire preparing for a wedding.

So he was the kind of man who valued family and thought marriage was valuable. She had been right in her choices at least. But she didn’t even have time to mourn the loss of a good man because her brother had forced a dagger into her heart once more.

—•

Some days she wondered why she was so adamant. Why she hadn’t given up on love a long time ago and sometimes, she laughed and told herself that maybe if she spent enough time awake as Klaus had, perhaps she would be as much of a cynic as her brother was.

Perhaps.

Because dating one of her brother’s men behind Niklaus’ back had spelt doom from the very beginning. Daily, she wondered at which point he would get tired of pretending to be okay with her relationship with Matt, and lash out.

Perhaps Freya had something to do with it.

Rebecca mused. Close to two years ago, their long lost sister had shown up. Klaus hadn't wanted to deal with her, hence waking Rebecca up to do that.

The two have since then become very close, considering Freya’s ruthless use of magic and Klaus’ affinity for ruthless people. Obviously, Rebecca had way too much heart to be considered a valuable asset to her brother.

Not as Freya has proven to be.

She took a long breath, letting it out slowly when the door opened behind her. She didn’t need to turn to know who it was. “Are you going to tell me now what the bloody hell is going on?” She says with more calmness than she actually felt. She had been hearing whispers from the men and knew something was up.

“Rebecca —“ Matt started to say and wondered how much he should reveal to her. The last thing he wanted was to upset her.

“Start talking, Matt, before I lose my patience with you.”

“My love,—“ He tried again.

“Don’t call me that. If your plan is to distract me into losing focus just because you called me love, you should reassess and change it.” She turned around then, a frown on her face.

“Calm down.”

“Start talking, Matt.” She snapped, accusing eyes firmly planted on her human boyfriend. “What have you and my brother done?”

Matt sighed, deflated. It had been at the tip of his tongue to deny any kind of involvement but he knew with one look at Rebecca that the original was not joking around. “Look, close to a week ago, your brother sent me on a mission.” He recounted. “To retrieve a girl...”

“You mean, to kidnap a girl.” She corrected, feeling the bile rise in her throat. “How old is she? What was the reason for it?” Maybe she was getting soft.

“He didn’t say much... all I had to do was take the girl from her bed in the middle of the night when her parents weren’t home.” Matt confessed, taking a step closer to her girlfriend. “Mystic Falls. I think her father’s name was Stefan Salvatore.”

“Stefan?” Rebecca’s vision went black, and then she literally saw red. Stefan had a child... Stefan was a family man who had done everything Rebecca had wanted to do with him —but with someone else. Stefan who was probably living in pain because his daughter has been taken from her bed in his home.

“Yeah but that’s all I know I swear.” Matt raised his right hand in a scouts honor pose. “I just wanted him to approve of me. Of us.” 

“You care more about my brother’s approval than you do mine. Perhaps you should be with him.” The blonde whispered, slowly, daunting as she took a step towards her boyfriend.

“Becca—“ he took a step back. Something in the way she was looking at him was enough to terrify him.

“You know better than to speak with me when I’m angry. I’m more than capable of ripping you apart.”

“I’m sor—“ he started to apologize.

“No you’re not. You fear my brother enough to do something you know I’ll be against.” Something about that statement, about finally voicing out centuries of failure in love, saddened her. “Do you intend to disrespect me just because I love you?”

“No, that’s not—“ he shook his head vigorously.

In an instant, Rebecca was in front of Matt, a mere inches beaten them as she menacingly whispered; “I am an original vampire. Just like Niklaus. You’d do well to remember that.” And with that she turned away and headed to the door. She needed fresh air to clear her mind first, then she would work on saving Stefan’s child.

“I’m genuinely sor—“

She stopped in the doorway, not bothering to look behind her. “If the options were between being with a coward, someone who cowers at the sight of my brother, and being alone, I’d choose over and over again to be left alone.” And with that, she supersped out of the room and the house.

Perhaps she was overreacting, but she never knew what to believe when it came to love anymore.

Perhaps Niklaus was really starting to rub off on her. Every moment now —even though she knew without a doubt that Matt was a good man; the main reason why she fell for him, and he loved her too— she expected him to get greedy and pick power over her.

Just like Marcel had.

Was she projecting her fears and insecurities onto him? Perhaps. But it didn’t help when he did things like that and said things like that.

It was crazy of her to expect Matt to defy her brother, she knew that. 

And perhaps the majority of her anger at her boyfriend stemmed from her own weakness and knowledge of how unattainable her dreams were.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

_**Katerina** _

Klaus heard the name loudly in his ears. Soon, he assured himself, very soon he will have Katerina and he was going to take his time and give her the most painful death ever recorded.

And oh, he was going to enjoy it. Yes, he will.

He will enjoy compelling her to do his bidding, forcing her to inflict pain on herself, over and over again. Perhaps have her snap her neck, die, wake up only to snap it again...

Or have Freya render her daylight ring useless and compel her into the sun long enough for her to feel the burn before pulling her back into the shade just to send her right back.

He wondered how many times he’d be able to do that before he was pleased, before he was convinced that she had atoned for her sin against him.— choosing life (whatever variation of it that was available, in this case vampirism) over death(a purposeful death to rid him of the hybrid curse).

Katerina was just an outlet for his anger, he knew. The ones he hated the most, whom he was angry at, were his parents; Michael and Esther Mikaelson... forcing him to live as a vampire, killing his true potential and forcing him to live like a crime. After five long centuries of enduring that pain thanks to Katerina, he was finally getting another chance and he would be damned if anyone stood in his way.

It was the reason why he kept his brother, Elijah daggered. They had been together when they had found out about the Petrova doppelgänger being born twenty eight years ago and Elijah had given his word that he would help Niklaus find her and finally finish the ritual.

And yet, Klaus knew how pained Elijah would be if he was to see what he planned to do with Katerina.

Pretending to not notice things was his best offensive maneuver against his siblings.

Like pretending not to notice that Elijah had been madly in love with Katerina 500 years ago.

Like pretending not to know that Rebecca was in love with Marcellus.

And recently, he was pretending to not know that his servant, Matt Donovan, was sleeping with his sister.

Rebecca was weak.

She didn’t use to be but these days her brain must be written in binary peace codes so that she seemed to have inherited Elijah’s fierce sense of justice, inadvertently making him the bad guy.

_As if he was the one who changed._

He hadn’t... his siblings had just gotten soft.

So when Kai has come to him with an intricate plan to get not just the doppelgänger, but Katerina, and hopefully in the process, get revenge on El Veloz for killing Marcellus, he had made sure to keep Rebecca out of the loop.

Freya on the other hand, has proved to be quite the asset, cloaking the child the moment she had been kidnapped, with magic that prevented her from being traced.

And from what he knew, Stefan had been trying to break through the barrier. 

It was definitely a good thing to have a witch in the family, he mused, turning the moonstone around in his hand.

—•

Centuries ago, he and his brother had fabricated the myth of the curse of the sun and the moon and sat back, watching as vampires and werewolves alike, plunged into a frenzy to find the hidden moonstone that was necessary for the ritual to take place.

It was the easiest thing he had done to get his hands on something so valuable.

He had all the ingredients for his ritual: a werewolf from the Bayou, a vampire he had turned just a week ago, the moonstone and a witch...

And if Stefan Salvatore upheld his end of the deal, in a week’s time, when the moon is full in the Mystic Falls sky —the birthplace of the Petrova doppelgänger— he would finally break the curse that had been plaguing him for a millennia.

He’d be damned if he would come so close to his dream and watch it slip away from him again like it had five centuries ago.

There will be hell to pay.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

Bonnie sat cross legged on the ground.

When she had stepped onto the grounds, her plan had been to start channeling the power of the witches immediately but the spirit of the dead witches had other plans.

_They wanted to chat._

About Damon.

If felt odd... crazy odd, how easy it was to talk to them.

They had been witness to their love ten years ago and witness to her pain after being left alone. Her grams had kept them updated about everything that had happened to her nine years ago and they gathered around to soothe her.

After three long hours of what felt like a deep clean therapy session, Bonnie felt light to the point of regretting putting away her visit to Mystic Falls for as long as she had.

They were after all, the only family she had.

A supportive family who were hurt on her behalf about losing something she had no idea was just as precious to them as it was to her.

She found out; Bennett witches have for more than three centuries, not borne sons.

They had no complaints of the sort about their daughters being powerful witches but they had come together, ten years ago and taken advantage of the _Alban Hefin_ ... or the Midsomer, —the Wiccan celebration of the longest day of the year and the beginning of summer. Celebration of the Goddess manifesting as Mother Earth and the god as the Sun King and their marriage which created a force of nature that created a bumper harvest— and channeled all their power into making her conceive even with a man who by all intents and purposes, shouldn’t be able to.

Finding out that she had bore a son— and then lost him, was making them angry.

And a fraction of that anger was channeled at the man who had packed up and left, and **failed** to protect their legacy. One they had entrusted to him, albeit without his knowledge.

—•

It was just an odd twist of fate that the man in question showed up at that very moment.


	11. Divulgence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Power—

Damon had spoken to Luka after Caroline’s announcement a few hours ago. For the most part, the witch had been civil to him, giving him accurate answers to his inquiries. 

Bonnie was going to channel the power of a hundred —and one, if you add Emily— witches. That much power was bound to overwhelm anyone.

Her chances of survival were increased because of age, and also because she has had a long time to build her stamina as a witch.

Her chances of surviving it, were decreased because she had been doing nonstop magic for the past week... and another week before they came to Mystic Falls.

The best chance Bonnie had against the overwhelming power of her ancestors, would happen if she just took another break. But that was as likely as pigs falling from the sky as rain.

And the best— the worst, really, all things considered— part of that information was simple; _Ancestral magic can only be channeled by a member of the Witches’ ancestry._

In short, Luka could not help Bonnie. He could not give her some of his endurance so she can weather the storm of the power she will be channeling.

Bonnie was all alone in this. Unless they’re able to find a Bennett witch to help her. That, didn’t seem likely.

Sighing, he turned around to leave. If Bonnie was going to be alone when wielding her magic, he was going to be with her in every capacity _aside_ that.

“In which capacity are you asking?” Luka’s question seemed to be an afterthought. As though he had fought an internal battle with himself and lost.

“I’m Stefan Salvatore’s brother.” Damon answered, humoring him. He had a problem with the man the first few days he was back in town, but he knew now the relationship between him and Bonnie was purely platonic. Plus, Bonnie had said, that night in the dining room, that Luka respected her privacy.

He found that curious, but he wasn’t so determined to get an explanation. Sooner or later, that statement will make sense to him. He was sure of that

“And Bonnie’s friend?” Luka probed.

“She and I have never been friends. We were lovers.” He replied earnestly.

“If you hurt her...” Luka started to say.

Damon laughed, self deprecatingly, realizing the irony in that. He had hurt her, damaged her. Her love for him had already damaged her but at the bewildered look on Luka’s face, he sobered up. “I won’t hurt her. I can’t. That woman’s heart is untouchable.” He sighed. “But then, that much is obvious, isn’t it?”

“Yeah... and now I’m wondering what part you played in making her the woman she is today.” The witch says accusingly before turning on his heel and walking away.

Damon watched him go. He knew, deep down, that he was the reason for that change.

It was absolutely selfish of him to wish she was the same pure and naive girl back then, when he was the reason why she was always on guard.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

Spaced out, the vampire lied and told himself he was just going for a stroll. Slow steps.

He has been wondering —since Bonnie had confirmed the story of her kidnapping and abuse— how he was going to get back at Niklaus.

And yet, every time he came up with a plan, he had to hold back. 

The last time he had been in an unknown battle with Klaus, Bonnie —and now possibly, Stefan’s family— has been put in danger. That old saying _”When two elephants fight, it’s the ground that suffers.”_ keep ringing in his mind.

He knew, however, that Bonnie had no intention of being a victim. And Stefan, although he chose to live as humanly as he could, was no pushover when it came to the things he believed in.

His brother was currently overwhelmed because the kidnappers had chosen the one weak link to his family.

_And that just boiled Damon’s blood._

In the distance, he saw the familiar site come into view, a wistful smile making its way onto his face as the bittersweet memories of ten years ago, flirted across his eyes in vivid detail.

He heard his Sheila’s laugh. The melodious echo hitting the bark of unsuspecting trees and bouncing right back at her. The naive fire in her.

All that life— stifled.

It made him **so** angry just thinking about it.

He was barely two steps in when he felt it.

An odd sensation started from the tip of his fingers and crawled up his face. It didn’t make sense.

Damon’s mind went active trying to find a cause to this sudden occurrence. He knew the feeling. Oh he knew the feeling too well.

Once every year, for the past 160 years on his birthday, he took of his daylight ring for a few minutes and basked —if you would call it that, considering the awful amount of pain that accompanied that— in the mild rays of sunlight that seeped into his room through thick curtains.

He didn’t have curtains now. He was facing the full brunt of the sun with his daylight ring malfunctioning. He felt the telltale signs of combustion intensify, hating that all he could see in his final moments was Bonnie Bennett’s back.

As if on cue, the witch turned around then and spotted him, her eyes going wide with shock.

“I’m so sorry...” Damon whispered. It was fucked up that his final words was an apology, especially to the one person he had hoped not to apologize to, but he needed her to know that.

“Get out!!” Bonnie screamed and when it looked like the vampire wasn’t going to move, she used her magic force to push him off the property.

The witch turned accusing eyes onto her ancestors in the room. They looked unapologetic and she couldn’t even be angry at them.

If she had put all her effort into getting something and someone else had messed that up, she would probably do worse to them.

Sighing, she plopped down onto the floor. She didn’t need to check on him, he was going to be fine.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

Damon was... stunned, to say the least.

After delivering his dying words, he had expected her to say something... to try running to him. Or something as equally dramatic as that.

What he hadn’t expected was to be yelled at... to get out. Stunned into immobility and still of the belief that his daylight ring was failing him, he just stood there.

In the next instant, right before he succumbed to this messed up fate of his, he felt her —well, her magic, to be precise— shove him. Hard.

And instantly, the burning sensation ceased.

It took him a few minutes —in the first two, he thought of what would have happened if he had burst into flames. Not saying goodbye to Stefan, leaving his brother at a time when he needed him the most and glumly, he wondered for the first time, if Stefan can go on living without him... they had made a pact a century ago. Live together, die together.

He wondered what would happen to Stefan if he really did die, not just here and now, but while he was out doing his work as _El Veloz_ .... 

In the third minute, he wondered why he had never thought about the implications of that pact till he literally stared death in the face.

In the fourth minute, he strengthened his resolve, knowing now, for a fact that he was retired. If for nothing at all, to not put his brother in the kind of position where he hadn’t to choose between life, and a new family... and his brother. And death.

This was going to be his last job, restoring Stefan’s happiness back to where it was.— but the realization hit him after he was done thinking about all the possible outcomes of his demise.

He was alive.

He was also outside the barrier of the Bennett burial site.

It was a classic example of _“If A is B and B is C, then A is C.”_

Witches... the ones who create the spells to make daylight rings.

Bennett witches... who had been witnesses to his time with Bonnie.

Almost dying while on Bennett property because his daylight ring stopped working...

Yup. He was almost killed by a group of demented ghosts who were obviously angry enough at him to kill.

“Wow... we’re not even married yet and my in-laws are giving me hell.” He mumbled, straightening up from where he had fallen when Bonnie had shoved him. “I need a drink.” He says, massaging his joints as he headed into town for just that.

It’s not everyday a vampire survives the anger of a hundred witches. If that didn’t call for celebration, what did?

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

“Is something wrong?” Damon asked when Bonnie walked back to him. He had come back from town with a bottle of bourbon and two glasses just in case but has found no other company than himself for the past six hours.

“No, I’m just a bit restless and out of it.” Bonnie replied honestly, stepping out of the borders of the property to join Damon. The witches had refused to let her use her magic because according to them, she needed a few hours to recuperate.

“So you came looking for me?” He didn’t sound half as cocky about that as he could. Sitting alone in the woods long past midnight with his thoughts had sobered him up, rendering the effects of the bourbon almost useless. So much for drowning his woes in a bottle.

“Well, my only companions for the past six hours have been ghosts so pardon me for seeking human company.” Bonnie replied defensively.

“Come over and join me. I run into town to steal —technically speaking— a bottle of bourbon.” He patted the ground beside him with one hand and held the other glass out to her.

“What, afraid you’ll be set to flames again?” The witch couldn’t help laughing.

“I’m guessing by that welcome that they’re mad at me?” Damon looked up at her, then beyond to look at the building in the distance.

“That would be an accurate guess, yes.” Bonnie confirmed, taking the offered glass and sitting on the ground beside the vampire. “After you left, I stayed here alone for another week before leaving. They were unwilling witnesses to that.”

“I’ve got some serious asskissing to do then.” 

“That won’t quite cut it.” She threatened. She figured, why not have fun at his expense. “My people... they’re not petty people.” She pauses for dramatic effect. “They’re vengeful. And you’ve made them very mad.”

The truth was, after his “final words” to her had been an apology, half of the witches —those who were way too romantically-minded for their own good— had shifted to his side... The others, still had some ways to go before they forgive him.

“Scary.” Damon whispered into his glass, then after a while, “I plan to retire soon.”

She was shocked enough to have no words to respond to him with.

“It’s not a new development. Over the past decade I’ve been thinking about it a lot more often than I’d like to admit. It just became clear after almost being roasted to death that this is the last real mission I’m taking.”

“What will you do after that? I mean, limitless life and all that stuff.”

“I’m not concerned about that.” He whispered. “Do you ever think about all the things you have missed out on?”

“Like what?” Something about the night, the way he spoke in soft tones, the raw emotion behind his words, made Bonnie want to run back into the house and seek parlay.

“Like a husband and children... a home.” It hurt him to ask. Caroline was okay with adoption and marrying a vampire because she was one herself... Bonnie wasn’t. If Bonnie wanted those things, the fact that he couldn’t provide her with them—

“I don’t allow myself to think about things like that... things I can’t have.” If her parents being terrible parents were not enough to deter her, losing her son drove the nail home.

Damon was torn. On one hand he wanted her to want him, even though he can not promise her a child... and on the other, he wanted her to be happy with a regular man who can give her a proper family. But hearing her say that... “why can’t you? You’re young and intelligent and beautiful and—“

“And already living a satisfactory life.” She cut in.

“Is satisfactory enough? Don’t you want more?” He asked, bewildered.

“A husband and children require commitment and risk... I prefer living a risk-free life.”

“What about love?” He says, eyes moving from her to look ahead into the dark.

“Talk about something else.”

A silence fell over them, —companionable— and they each allowed their thoughts to wonder, Bonnie pouring herself a drink from the almost empty bottle of bourbon.

“I can take care of myself.” She says after a while.

“I have no doubts about that.” Damon agreed, turning his gaze away from the dark vines ahead and looking at her for the first time in minutes.

“I don’t need anyone to look out for me or pick up my slack. I’ve done this kind of thing before.” The witch says stubbornly. She wasn’t sure if she was pouting or trying to reassure him of her competence.

“Have you really?” He asked quietly.

“No, I haven’t channeled the power of a hundred dead witches if that’s what you’re asking but it won’t be the first time I’ve risked my life while working on a spell.”

“What gives you the impression that I’m concerned about you?”

She shrugged and he he took a sip of his bourbon.

Carefully, flexing her fingers in a silent spell, Bonnie pulled together a few sticks lying around and set fire to them.

Damon watched, transfixed as the light from the fire danced across her face, her features. Her stoic attitude and abrasive demeanor did nothing to hide the searing femininity of the woman before him.

She was an absolute goddess.

He watched hungrily as her lips parted around the edge of the glass, taking a sip of her drink, and watched as her tongue farted out to lick her sinful lips. He noticed the mild shiver of her body as the drink went down.

Younger, she had been alluring and beautiful but this older Bonnie, was simply ethereal, with a grace borne from age and maturity. A sensuality that was threatening to choke the breath out of his lungs.

_How could he possibly hope to ignore this?_

“You're staring.” She says. It wasn’t a question.

“I am concerned.” He finally admitted, opting for the truth. “I’d rather you channel Luka than this. The power of a hundred witches is bound to be overwhelming and from what Luka says...” He sighs, carefully rubbing a tired palm down his face. “Look, is there a way to increase your odds? I mean with all that power...”

“Careful, Damon... might start to think that you care.” She tried for a lighter tone.

“And we wouldn’t want that.”

When it seemed, from his reply, that he couldn’t be lighthearted about this, she tried again. “I have told you already; I am not an amateur when it comes to my magic power. I haven’t been in a very long time...”

“The problem is me, not you.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t get it.” She frowned.

“I’ve never been personally involved with someone I’m working on a case with... Worrying about you will mean I won’t be at my best.”

It was at the tip of her mouth to tell him if he wanted to die, not to use her as an excuse because she was definitely not going to use him, but something more pressing needed to be addressed. “We’re not involved. We haven’t been for ten years now.”

He turned toward her, a wistful smile on his face. “You know, and I know, that’s not true. The moment we met again, everything reset to where it was ten years ago. Like the time in between didn’t happen.”

“But it did.” She deadpanned, feeling her resolve start to weaken the more she stayed with him. “We should have learned from our history that we’re bad for each other.”

“Maybe we were, back then. But we’re different now. We’d both know from the get-go what we were getting ourselves into, and know what to expect.” He whispered, almost pleading. “Meli’āki...”

“I’m not your little Sheila.”

“Do you think it matters what your name is?” He cupped her face in his free hand, half expecting her to shrug him off. She didn’t. “You’re a different person than you were ten years ago and I dare say, so am I... but what we feel for each other is still very potent, Bonnie...”

“Lust?”

“Call it what you want but we both know nothing came close to it, before and after.” Bold of him to assume that for her just because it was true for him but per his calculations, that seemed feasible.

“You’re wrong. It isn’t —“ She paused, then tried again when she saw the look in his eyes. “I’m not your Sheila. If you’re looking for her, you won’t find her.”

“I understand. I’ve not been David in a very long time too.”

“Our minds are playing tricks on us... creating a mirage of something that isn’t there— isn’t real.” She hated that it sounded like she was making excuses.

“Ah but that’s where you’re wrong...” Damon whispered. “it’s true that we’re not the same people we were back then but what we feel is real. Passion cares not for the time that has passed. It doesn’t care about who matured and who stayed the same or even the lessons we have learned.”

“Is that another name for lust? Passion?” She scoffed. “I call it insanity and insanity in the young —in this case, me.— can be excused but not in people are ages.”

“Time really just flies sometimes.” He smiled. “It seemed only yesterday that I was in love... madly in love with my Sheila...”

“I believed you when you told me that. But after you left me the way you did... I questioned everything. I even questioned myself.” Was she pouting? Is it a fresh batch of anger she felt building up the more she thought about all the reasons why they **can’t** be together? “You have no idea—“

“I truly believed that by leaving you I was doing what was best for you.” He repeated. “That I was protecting you. I had no idea—“

“I don’t want to talk about Kai or Niklaus. I don’t want a repeat of the two weeks we shared ten years ago. I have no love to give you.” She cut in, determined to walk away from him. “I admit there is some kind of tension between us. Tension is feasible, love is not.”

“Passion will be enough for you?”

“It’s all we have. Perhaps, all we ever—“

He silenced her with a kiss. Powerful and demanding and for a moment, Bonnie responded. She had been ambushed —not even noticing at which point he moved close enough to kiss her. 

Soon enough, she realized what was happening and showed at his chest, eyes flaring with anger in them.

She jumped up, glaring down at him. “I make the rules, you understand?” She asked sternly. “I have not given you that power.” When he still sat there looking at her with no words, she forced. “Answer me, goddamnit!”

“Yes, I understand.” Damon replies, standing up and brushing the dirt off his pants. “I may have made the rules ten years ago but you were the one with the power even back then. Something about you made me stay —made me **want** to stay— with you for two long weeks against my better judgement... and ripped my heart apart when I had to leave you.”

“You’re feeling sorry for me, aren’t you?” Her anger had evaporated dramatically as she payed attention —really listened to Damon and watched the way he looked at her—.

“I feel guilty.” He admitted. “And angry.”

“I was lying ... to myself and to you.” Bonnie admitted too, taking a step back, then another till she was sure she was on the Bennett property once more. “As much as I’d like to put you in the fray with the rest of the male population, I can’t. You affect me in a way no one ever has...” 

If she was going to confess, she needed to be far away from damon and the closest to that, is stepping back into the border of where he was banned entry. “For as long as I can remember, I haven’t met a man I couldn’t handle. I haven’t felt any real emotion for anyone since...” 

She swallowed. “And it scares me... and makes me **so angry** that I can’t seem to have a say in how I’m feeling about you. I hate that you still have that much power over me.”

“I swear on my life, I will never do anything to hurt you.” It hurt him to even be saying that. Hurt him to see she had to run away from him to be able to say that to him. 

“Then you be strong for the both of us.” She turned around. “Don’t take away my power. I already lost everything else.”

Damon was confused. It was the second time she’d said something so coded to him, making him believe she was hiding something from him.

He was about to call out to her when a scream tore through the night air.

He frowned, realizing it was coming from the house on the property.

“My God, who’s screaming?”

Bonnie rushes back outside, grabbing Damon by the arm. “Can you take me to the house?” She asked, and at his frown, she clarified. “I mean the Salvatore mansion.” Before he could ask another question, she added. “I have an active listening spell in there for the Salvatore Mansion. That was from Caroline.”

She knew.... she knew because nine years ago, those screams had belonged to her.

Needing no other explanation, Damon grabbed her by the waist and supersped them home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I read through this a lot while writing —trying to connect the the characters— so by the time I finished it I couldn’t read through anymore hehe...
> 
> I have had it done for days hoping to read through and edit but I still can’t seem to do it so here I am... posting it as is.
> 
> Kindly draw my attention to it if there are any discrepancies. 🤗🤗


	12. Quantum Leap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonnie breaks through...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER:  
> •— child abuse.  
> •— mild child molestation  
> •— character death
> 
> If that would trigger you, please skip to the bottom of this chapter for notes (I’ll put a full summary of the chapter in there so you don’t miss the gist of the chapter) if not... well, dig in.
> 
> ——•

**_Phasmatos Tribum, Nas Ex Veras, Sequitas Sanguinem_ **

_The scene played out before her. Sage, dirty and shaking, munching hungrily on bread. Her night dress which looked to have been pink, was now an unrecognizable color._

_Her feet were bare, bruised at the ankles and toes. And she bore a handprint on her cheek like it had been branded into her skin._

_After hungrily eating her food, she gulped down the water that seemed to have come with it almost as quickly as she had finished the bread._

_Wiping her mouth, she pushed the small cup away and pulled her knees up, leaning her chin on them as she wrapped still shaking arms around herself._

_She was crying— that explained the consistent trembling. Tears were flowing down her once rosy cheeks as she stared into the void._

_No sound came..._

_No one came._

Bonnie was fuming when she forced herself to pull away from the vision. It wasn’t the kind of anger that made her want to take a walk or jog around, it was the kind that made her want to kill someone.

And the fact that Kai was somehow involved in this nonsense, was even more of a trigger.

She didn’t want to think about it, but Damon’s words kept coming to her: _”By refusing to lead the authorities to them, you let them go free... to do it to another girl.”_

At the time, he had been referencing sexual molestation and she had been certain they wouldn’t repeat it because they had achieved all they wanted to achieve, with her.

Now, she wasn’t so sure.

She felt like a coward.

Even now, after telling Damon that being on her guard 24/7 was a way to protect herself, she felt like a coward.

Running. Hiding. Pretending to be over what happened to her by avoiding Mystic Falls and avoiding Los Alamos —her hometown, which was also where the gory death of her son had happened.—

She had been avoiding the things that made her weak, avoiding her emotions because that was the only way she could be let out of the hospital 9 years ago. 

She had had to pretend to be okay after 6 months of intense psychiatric therapy.

And after she came out and went home, she pretended some more... and then some more... and more... till pretending to move on actually felt like moving on to her.

_fake it till you make it._

And now, she didn’t care if Sage is brought back —because she’s going to damn well make sure the girl is— but she is definitely going to be the one to kill Kai.

_With her own hands._

“I got something! I got in!” Bonnie exclaimed, running out to meet Damon. Sometimes she felt bad for withholding the information of the death of their son from him but Sage was what was important now. 

She resolved, when he got up from where he sat and turned around to face her.... _When all this is over, I’m going to tell him. Not before, after._ because somehow, she didn’t trust that he would be calm about it.

“What is it?” The vampire asked, curious, and yet terrified to ask, considering how neutral Bonnie looked. He figured she would be happier if Sage was alive.

“Hey, vampires can insert themselves into people’s memories and mind right?” She inquired, already knowing the answer since Caroline had demonstrated to her a long time ago.

“Yeah... why?” He already knew where this was going and he didn’t necessarily like it.

“See for yourself.” She says simply and allowed him to take her hands in his, going on that brief mental journey with her.

Sage was in a bad shape. But she was alive. And that was the most important thing, he realized as he pulled back from her mind.

“Caroline and Stefan must be out of their minds waiting for some news. It’s been a week since she was kidnapped. This has dragged on way too long.” Bonnie says.

“No doubt about that.” He sighed, running agitated fingers through his hair. “I don’t necessarily like watching Stefan tethering on that emotional high without adequate release. Stefan has a bad habit when he gets too overwhelmed. I just hope he can keep it together for a while longer. Dealing with a ripper episode is not something I want to do right now.”

“What’s a ripper episode?”

“Did your friend ever tell you the kind of vampire my brother is?”

“He’s a vampire. Don’t you all drink blood and do things other vampires do? Oh. Minus the turning into a bat thing, of course.”

“Well, technically, yes.” He agreed. “It’s the kind of blood that strikes the difference.” At Bonnie’s frown, he elaborated. “Stefan likes animal blood... well, frankly, I wouldn’t go so far as to say he _likes_ it... he _prefers it_ feels more accurate. He wouldn’t even drink from blood bags just to stay safe but that also means he’s weaker than the average vampire.”

“Stay safe from what?” She asked, still confused.

“Bloodlust. Some of us... like your friend, and myself, we know how to pace ourselves. Stefan doesn’t. Indulging in drinking blood bags may be bearable but draining straight from the vein is kind of a tipping point.”

“So if he drinks from someone he’ll kill them.” It wasn’t really a question and she can see that happening but she thought it weird.

From what Caroline had told her...

**Flashback to 9 years ago: Bonnie is in the hospital recovering from her kidnapping incident.**

_“So I know this is crazy, but I’m a vampire.” Caroline deadpanned._

_“What? You’re crazy.” Even in her current state, she still had energy whenever Caroline visited her, which was once every week._

_“I’m serious.”_

_“How’s that even possible?_

_“So like... you know when you came to town and I wasn’t there? That was when it happened.”_

_“What happened?” Bonnie was going to indulge her. It’s not like she had a lot of things planned today._

_“That evening, a call came in that my grandma was sick so mom said we should go and visit her since the doctor said she was likely to pass on.” She sighed. “But I had already made plans with some of the guys from school to have a party. It was a few days after graduation anyways so I went.... and drunk a lot.”_

_“And that’s how you became a vampire?” Bonnie asked, trying for a serious tone and failing._

_“No, silly.” The blonde shoved her lightly. “On my way home... even though I was pissed drunk, I still drove my car. A deer, or some other animal... it’s still foggy, crossed my path so to avoid hitting it, I drove my car straight into a tree.”_

_“Oh Carr...” now she was concerned._

_“I know. Anyways, when I came to, I was drinking blood from some guy. He said I will be fine now with his blood in my system and he had to leave because my blood was too much temptation.”_

_“Seriously?”_

_“I’m not making this up, stop looking at me like I’m crazy.”_

_“I said nothing.” Bonnie laughed. It surprised her. The sound of her own laughter was foreign to her now. “So what happened after?”_

_“He told me ‘try not to die in the next 24 hours’ and I thought well, he was cute and all so maybe he was awkward and that was his way of flirting with me.”_

_“Which—“ the brunette asked, eyes squinting in question._

_“Hey, don’t patronize me. I’m 18 and single because that jerk Tyler chose prom night to cheat on me... of course I was allowed to have crushes on vampires.”_

_“So having the blood in you is what turned you?”_

_“No. I wish. It turns out he wasn’t flirting, he was serious.” Caroline took a deep breath and let it out. “On the way to see my grandmom, my mom and I got into an accident. A car filled with rowdy teenagers slammed into my side of the car and sent me flying to my death.” The blonde spoke so quickly, Bonnie was sure for a while that she had misheard._

_“You’re not supposed to joke about death, Carr...”_

_“I swear I’m not. Mom said I died...for five minutes I was just... dead.” Her voice trembled. “But then I woke up and things went haywire.”_

_From there, her memory jumbled after that... daylight is toxic, there’s a daylight ring... Caroline pulling her ring off to demonstrate to her what happens in the sunlight... how she had come back to town with her mom and the sheriff had combed every house till they found him. The vampire. How he had taken it upon himself to teach her self control and how to feed._

_Stefan had taught her all that. So she couldn’t reconcile that Stefan to the one Damon was talking about._

_———•_

“And then about two hundred more people, yes.” Damon’s voice seemed to echo in her mind, pulling her out of her trance.

“No.” She says quickly, looking at him for confirmation.

“Yes.” He emphasized.

“No way!” She almost yelled. “You, for some reason, I see doing that. Stefan, no way.” There must be some conspiracy going on.

“For what it’s worth, I have killed for the thrill, I have drained innocents till they went limp in my arms and I have in the past, relished pulling out a heart just to get my message across—“ Damon seemed to sober up.

“Why are you telling me that?” Bonnie asked, confused.

“I do not want to create the perception that I am, and have always been good. Because I’m not. The only things I don’t compromise on, are family and love.” He sighed. “We promised to be honest with each other. That going into this, we need to know exactly what we’re getting ourselves into.”

“There was no such promise.” Bonnie countered.

“What? Hiding something?” He teased, and dared, in the same breath.

“Anyway... your brother should be able to relax after seeing the proof that his daughter is alive. The only thing worse than having your child kidnapped is the not knowing. Not knowing if they’re dead or alive will make you wonder forever.” Bonnie says, hoisting her bag onto her shoulder and picking up her grimoire from where she had put it when showing him her vision of Sage. 

When she looked up, he was looking at her with a curious look on his face and she quickly clarified before he got any ideas. “I have a witch shop in San Jose. _Bennett KwikSpell Magic shop_ ... I get all manner of clients with different needs.” She started walking back to the Salvatore house, Damon easily falling in stride. 

“When I opened the shop, the idea was to sell small enchantments... like marriage and couple rings spelled with love and understanding spells... and stones for chakra control and balance. Amulets and trinkets... I may have outdone myself because after the first few success stories, what had started as a hobby became a job. I found out the hard way just how potent word of mouth marketing really is.”

“I was beginning to wonder...” He had begun to wonder how she knew so much about kidnapping cases and why Caroline had called her aside her being a witch, that is. He had discovered her witch shop when he had investigated her a few days ago.

“Now all manner of requests come in. From defense spells to aromatherapy.” Bonnie was excited about her job. She loved it. “After being accosted by the local cops for fraud a few times, now I offer locator spells for them if they ask nicely.” She smiled. 

“I’ve dealt with enough child kidnapping cases to be able to put myself in a mother’s shoes accurately. If there is no proof, no body proof, the parents never believe anything.— Dead or alive.” Her memories threatened her, forcing her to stop dead in her tracks.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Damon asked, concerned.

“Nothing. Just got a sudden chill but I’m fine.”

“You went still and pale. That was not just a chill.” 

“Hurry. I need to show Stefan and Caroline that Sage is alive.” She quickened her pace.

“Wait. Show?” Damon caught up with her easily, an incredulous look on his face.

“Yes.”

“Haven’t they been through enough already? Seeing her battered and dirty alone and crying in that nasty room will upset them more than—“

“You may be a super spy but Damon, but when it comes to these things, I’m the leading authority.” She snubbed him.

“Only Stefan then.” He tried to bargain, to draw a compromise.

“Both of them will see it. _Especially_ Caroline.” After spending all night in bed with Caroline, holding her, talking her to sleep after her nightmare, both of them crying at how unfair the world was, the only reason she had been determined to find Sage today was so her best friend will go to sleep without nightmares and some hope in her heart.

Stefan had been overwhelmed by the time they got home. He didn’t know what to say to calm her down because he had, himself, needed to be comforted. So Damon has taken him out of the room for a drink to distract him, and Bonnie had lay in bed with Caroline, spooning, talking to her about anything and everything that came to mind until the girl giggled when she shared the story about Damon almost burned alive by her ancestors. _Your people don’t joke around._ she chuckled.

“You’re her friend. How could you after last night? What if—?” 

“No ifs, what ifs, ands or buts. The subject is closed for discussion.” Bonnie replied firmly.

“We’ve both seen that she’s alive. If you tell Caroline and I tell Stefan, they’ll take our words for it.” Damon followed after her, surprised at how fast she seemed to be moving.

“You really don’t understand, do you?” She stopped and turned to face him.

“What’s there to understand? You want to torture them when we can simply spare them that image of their daughter.” Damon accused.

“That what you think you’ll be doing? Sparing them?” The witch scoffed.

“Can you honestly tell me that if it was your child you would want to see her in such a state?”

“God yes!” She exclaimed instantly, not even sparing a second’s thought. “If it were my child, I’ll weep for joy that she was alive. Who cares if she’s beaten and dirty? If she’s alive we have hope that I can get her back. If she were—“ 

She stopped, drew in a deep breath through her nostrils and let it out slowly through her mouth, squaring her shoulders. “You seem to be under the misguided perception that Stefan and Caroline have pure thoughts. Do you know what it takes for a mother to scream herself awake? It takes **horror.** Nothing I’ll show them today will ever match the images they already have in their heads. Nothing.” She stressed. 

“Unlike you, I’m not trying to spare them, I’m trying to ease their mind. To give them some relief.” She turned to start walking again.

Damon stood in his place for a while. Something about the look on Bonnie’s face and in her eyes as she spoke, was unnerving. Finally, he sped up to catch up with her again. “You know this for a fact?”

“I know it for a fact.” She says firmly, not sparing him a glance, then to make sure he understood what she was saying, she added. “If I had seen Sage’s bloody and lifeless body, I would still let them see it... without a single doubt.”

Damon does to stand in front of her, stopping her in her tracks. “I don’t know you at all, do I? What kind of person would—?”

“Do not chastise me and don’t you dare try and judge me.” Bonnie spat out... the look in his eye bothering her. He looked at her like she was broken... lost. _tell him..._ her brain sneered. _tell him and let’s see if he’s still so cocky and judgey._

“I’ve spent more than a century killing... sometimes I dish out a death so brutal it rocks me to my very core, convincing me that I have lost my soul.” Damon whispered, cupping her cheek in his right palm, his thumb rubbing softly against the skin before whispering. “What is it that I don’t know about you, Meli’āki? How did you lose your soul?”

“If my child was kidnapped and held for ransom, whatever that may be... and I was told he was dead or alive, I would want to see proof. I won’t want someone telling me that, I would want to see it for myself. And if he was dead...” She closed her eyes, speaking defiantly at him, staring into those eyes filled with sadness _on her behalf_ while fighting her own memories, was proving to be tiring.

She didn’t pull away from his hold on her but didn’t lean into him too... she could take a few minutes of comfort from him without making it so obvious that she _needed_ it. “If my son was dead, I would want to hold him in my arms and feel his pulse myself to be sure. The heart and mind play dirty tricks on us... giving us hope when there’s none and taking it away when we should have it.”

“Bonnie—“ When Damon spoke, it was a aimed whisper.

“I haven’t lost my soul. I just live in a world that is full of screaming color while watching everyone else around me living in the gray areas.” She sighed, dropping her eyes momentarily. “Coming face to face with death, wallowing in self pity and helplessness... losing all that I had at the time— the silver lining was that I came out of it a realist. Being on guard 24/7, not caring... not loving enough to be hurt again. That’s how I survived so far. I’m not a cruel person, I just act the truth in a way most people are afraid to.” She stepped away from the comfort of his palm on her cheek.

Damon’s arm dropped to his side. “I’m sorry. Of all people, I’m the last person to judge you.” He apologized then looked up to see her literally fighting back tears. “Bonnie?”

“I’d like to be left alone the rest of the way home.” And she was glad that he did just that, falling several feet behind her as they walked home.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

Caroline’s face was buried into her husband’s shirt, her tears running down her face and soaking the cotton of Stefan’s attire.

Bonnie had brought her proof that Sage was alive.

She was hurt, and had a nasty hand print on her face... her lips were cracked and her cheeks and eyes looked worn out from tears.

But she was alive. And that was something. They’d had to watch it repeatedly for half an hour till it was imprinted in her mind now.

She felt a hand on her back, knew it was Bonnie and turned her head to mouth _thank you_ at her best friend, who just smiled and winked at her, her own eyes teary.

From afar, Damon watched the sight before him. Bonnie had been right.

Stefan and Caroline seem _happier_ after seeing Sage, regardless of what state she was in.

His eyes darted to the ebony skinned witch, watching her carefully. Something was amiss. He knew that much. He also knew that he would not invade her privacy by running another background check on her.

That left trust.

He had to earn her trust for her to tell him.

_Challenge accepted._

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

_**Elsewhere...** _

She had been tired of the indoors. She was never really a party animal but being a domestic chicken wasn’t fully her style either.

It was only a matter of time before Rebecca got tired of being cooped up indoors as a sign of rebellion towards her brother. 

She had hoped that by sulking for as long as she had been doing, her one request will be granted and Elijah will be undaggered. Or at least she would find out where his coffin was.

Nothing.

Hands tucked away in her pocket, she strolled lazily onto the compound and stopped when a sound caught her attention.

Wearing a frown on her face, she supersped to the direction in which she heard it coming from.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

The simple message read: _Mom and dad will get you out of there, Pumpkin. Just stay strong okay?_

_**Prend ce message ce au le centre se levant.** _

The paper disappeared from her palm in a burst of flames.

And to watch that her message, was send, Bonnie cast the locator spell once again: _**Phasmatos Tribum, Nas Ex Veras, Sequitas Sanguinem.**_

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

Alistair Duquesne hated his current job.

Babysitting a brat was not why he had signed up to be a vampire centuries ago but he couldn’t necessarily complain to his sire about his displeasure because the chance that his heart will be out of his chest before his second word, was very high.

It did not help also, that the little twerp still seemed to have some fight in her: kicking and bolting towards the door every chance she got even on such an insanely little ration of bread and water, purposefully made to make her weak with time.

_what are kids of today being fed? Are they ruminants? Where do they store all this energy??_

As curious as he was, he wasn’t necessarily going to sit and chat with the little girl who had a different part of his skin to chew at, every 12 hours.

•——•

Sage saw it... the wrinkled piece of paper. 

A single drop of tear fell from her eyes when she read the message. It was her. Her godmother.

Although she spoke to her over the phone a lot, once in a while, Bonnie sent her messages like these, with the pet name she had for her. _according to her, Pumpkins are a favorite of all witches, and so was she._

She had been too caught up with reading the message over and over again, brimming with hope, that she had missed the telltale signs of someone approaching the door till it was too late.

Quickly and on impulse, she shoved the note inside her mouth and started chewing vigorously.

Something that evidently, did not please the man. She _felt_ him hovering over her, her skin crawling with fear and yet, with a newfound vigor, she looked up at him.

He didn’t like the defiance in her gaze, and his way of showing his disdain for it, was a nasty slap across her face.

It was in the same place as the previous one and her face hurt like it had been cut by a knife and not just slapped.

Angrily, he hawked her skinny body up and onto her feet, by her nightgown and Sage felt the familiar trickle of fear make its way back into her small body.

She closed her eyes and prepared to die but suddenly, a big, sweaty hand grabbed the edge of her nightgown and ripped it apart from neck to navel.

She gasped from the shock of the action, bile gathering in her throat as he peruses her like a predator. Her mother had told her what to do to such men. Men who wanted to see her naked. Bad men.

Lifting her foot, she tried to kick him in the groin but her was too quick and grabbed her leg, pushing her against the wall.

She sobbed as a fresh wave of helplessness washed over her and screamed when he pinched her nipples hard, pain shooting through her.

_the worst... the worst is going to happen to me. Please.... please save me. Anyone._ she prayed in her head.

“Alistair.” It was a woman’s voice. She heard it in the distance right before the big man tossed her aside and turned to face their intruder.

Sage scampered off into the corner of the dingy room, trembling from the force of her fear.

“Rebecca. This does not concern you. Klaus—“

“You talk too much.” The eerily calm voice of the woman came once again.

Sage couldn’t tell if she was here to save her or help in the abuse.

“This child is under my...” he paused. 

Footsteps.

And then. “Allow me to tell you something, Alistair, before you die.” The woman says again. “There are many lines in this world you are allowed to cross... and many in this house you are allowed to cross. This isn’t one of them.”

Silence.

Followed by a loud thud on the floor. 

When Sage opened her eyes, she met the lifeless eyes of her tormentor, then quickly, it was replaced by the smiling face of a blonde woman.

“Your father’s Stefan?” She asked.

“Mmhm.”

“Come. I won’t let anyone hurt you anymore. I’ll protect you.” She reaches out and pulled Sage to her feet, pulling her cardigan off her dress and wrapping it around her. “I’m Rebecca. What’s your name?”

“‘m Sage.” She whispered timidly.

“Sage, what a beautiful name.” She smiled, taking hold of her hand and walking her out of her room. “My mother was a witch. Sage was one of her favorite herbs.” She chatted.

“A witch?”

“Yes. A powerful one.”

“That man—“ The girl started to say.

“Won’t hurt you anymore. No one else will, not while you’re under my watch.” She smiled down at the girl. “I owe your father a favour. Let’s just say I’m repaying.”

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

When Bonnie recoiled from the vision she had seen, she was trembling.

Her whole body was having an active case of sensory overload.

She was angry. Angry at the man who dared to put his hands on that little girl. Angry at the man who allowed such a brute to care for the girl. Angry that she wouldn’t be the one to drain the life-force out of him— to hand over judgement.

And curious...

Curious about who Rebecca is, how she had easily killed the monster known as Alistair, how did she know Stefan?

Most importantly, should she ask the man about it? Why he seems to have an ally in the kidnappers camp?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **For those who heeded the trigger warnings: a summary of the chapter.**
> 
> •— Bonnie breaks through Freya’s cloaking spell with the help of her ancestors.
> 
> •— She has a discussion without damon about telling Caroline and Stefan what she saw... Damon thinks she’s cruel and has lost her souls for wanting them to see what she saw.
> 
> •— She goes ahead to show it to the couple: they’re happy to see it. Even though Sage is bruised and dirty.
> 
> •— Bonnie sends a message/note to Sage to reassure her.
> 
> •— Alistair (the vampire guarding Sage) catches Sage chewing the message and to punish her, ripped her clothes and tried to touch her as some kind of punishment.
> 
> •— Rebecca, within earshot, intervened and kills Alistair.
> 
> •— She takes Sage with her saying she has a Favour to repay Stefan.


	13. Sepulchre

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katerina

“What did you do?” Matt Donovan asked his girlfriend when he walked into her room to see her with the girl he had kidnapped. Rebekah had obviously given the girl a bath and found a dress for her to wear and was now braiding her hair as though they have been mother and daughter since the girl was born. Something about that scene unnerved him.

They haven’t been together for long considering Klaus had undaggered his sister only a few months ago. It was merely physical when it started. He was sure she had jumped him that first time between them because she needed some, and he was available. Somehow, he felt that he being a human was the reason why it happened the second time... and all the times after that.

He wasn’t a naive man. 

She was one of the Original Vampires. That meant she carried her own baggage of darkness around even though she seemed... kinder than what he had associated with the word _Original Vampire_. It was what endeared him to her. And it was, what would most likely get both of them killed, he thought grimly as he watched her with the girl.

“What I had to do.” Rebekah’s calm response cut through his thoughts.

“But—?” He tried to protest.

“Dear, I didn’t ask your opinion before I did it, what makes you think I need it now.” She still wasn’t looking at him but her irritation was evident in her tone.

Sighing, his voice lowered. “Am I missing something?”

“Like what?” She finally looked up at him.

“We’ve been arguing a lot lately.” He baited.

“Look, I know we’ve not been together for a long time and we’re still figuring it out but I’m not the kind of person who would watch a little kid mishandled in any way.” She says as a way of reasoning.

“Is that the only reason?” Somehow, Matt knew that wasn’t it. He didn’t even know if it was a good thing or bad thing that they seem to be arguing more. If they were just casual fuckbuddies, she wouldn’t care enough to argue with him, right?

And yet, he also knew that was a far fetched idea.

“I don’t see how any reason could be more potent than that.” Rebekah says with an absentminded smile.

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

So the blonde had gone out to town with her guest, her new companion. Without Elijah, she was bored out of her mind and living on a constant edge. Elijah was the one who calmed Klaus down, the one who probably loved Klaus the most. And she was sure that even though she was Niklaus’ favorite, the one he _needed_ the most was Elijah. And she knew that Niklaus knew that. 

So why was he keeping their eldest brother —who always had his back— daggered in this current situation? It baffled her.

But she did not allow herself to wallow in her thoughts for long. If her silent treatment had failed so far, she had a few other methods that would work on Klaus. She was his beloved little sister after all and that, in and of itself, was all the ammo she needed. 

She instinctively gripped Sage’s hand tighter when they came close to the house, and flinched when the girl seemed to tense beside her. 

She had walked around town with her after coercing one of the witches in the quarter to cast a glamour spell on them. It had been peaceful and for a few hours, she had allowed herself to get lost. Lost in her thoughts.

Vampires couldn’t procreate. That meant Sage was the adopted daughter of Stefan. When she had met Stefan in 1922, she had immediately been smitten. And not once did he make her feel she was wrong for that. 

He was reckless in a way Klaus loved, and soft in a way that she loved. Somehow, she had appealed to both Mikaelsons and she had been certain that had the rest of them been awake at the time, Stefan would have gotten along with all of them, even Kol the maniac.

That was who Stefan had been.

They never spoke about raising a family but he never seemed to be hungry for power and recognition like Marcel had been. In all her years of living and being daggered, she’s grown a complex when it came to identifying those who were genuine and those who weren’t. She was more than happy to know that she had not been wrong about Stefan.

Stefan had moved on —perhaps with time, but being compelled tends to do that— and she was genuinely happy for him.

Happy enough to protect the new family he had even if it meant fighting Niklaus.

She sighed, and as if on cue, felt a gush of wind as vampires surrounded her and the girl. “Rebekah.”

“Have I been asleep too long? Or is there no discipline whatsoever in your ranks?” She asked lazily, irritated yet maintaining an air of calm collectedness in order not to startle the girl.

“That’s...” the vampire directly before her started to say.

“Somehow, you’re still talking. Confidently.” The chuckle was anything but humorous as she turned sweet eyes to the young girl. After picking her brain all day, she concluded that the girl knew very little beyond her parents’ name, her god mother and the cooks in their house, where they lived and her favorite sleep toy... most importantly, she knew that the girl was yet to be exposed to the world of vampires. Witches, she was aware of... vampires, no.

“Sage, close your eyes and cover your ears for me, okay?” When the girl looked up at her with skeptical eyes, she smiled. “Don’t you trust me?” That seemed to do the trick. And she felt bad about that somehow. “Now where were we? Right. Discipline.” She says, turning around to focus on the group of lawless warriors around her.

“So what, you’re on first name basis with the hostage?” Freya asked, pushing her way to the front of the line so the two on them —and Sage— were now in the circle. 

Instinctively, Rebekah moved to stand before the girl, shielding her from the witch in the only way she knew how to. “Hostage? She’s a kid! An eight year old kid who is scared out of her mind and malnourished. Isn’t it common decency to at least know a person by their name?”

“That is beside the point. The point is you took her out of the house without permission.” Freya says calmly and yet looked at Rebekah with a fierce fire in her eyes. Oh if looks could kill... “Do you know how difficult it is to maintain a spell on a target who’s location you don’t have locked down?”

“And now she’s a target.” Rebekah scoffed, ruffling her blonde hair in evident frustration.

“Grab the child.” Freya says to the vampires around, choosing to ignore Rebekah.

“I get the feeling you want to test me.” The original vampire actually laughed, humorlessly, cracking her knuckles menacingly as she counted from the corners of her eyes how many vampires there roughly were. _20 she could see... approximately 15 behind her..._ taking down 35 vampires was no chore. The chore was the witch in front of her. “Are your eyes firmly shut, Sage? Good.” She commended when the girl didn’t respond... it meant both her eyes and ears were shut like she had told her to.

“Don’t force my hand. Niklaus—“ Freya started to say, stopping when a freshly pulled out heart rolled onto the floor between them, a collective gasp breaking out around them. 

“Will not stand for anyone... _anyone_ , disrespecting Rebekah.” The culprit announced fiercely as he stepped in the middle of the circle, the other vampires retreating to avoid a fate similar to their comrade. “Hello, sister. I thought you were still sulking in your room. What is this commotion?” Klaus says with a mild smirk, eyes darting to the girl behind his sister. It was the first time he was seeing the girl after she had been kidnapped. 

“Don’t you hello sister me, Klaus, you brute!” Rebekah accuses fiercely. 

“You wound me, dear sister.” He chuckled, clutching his chest in mock pain. “What do we have here?” 

“I killed one of your men. Ripped his heart out in a way you would have been proud of.” Rebekah smirked, daring him to say something after the similar stunt he just pulled. The evidence of his brutality was lying at his feet like a vendetta. “He put his hands on her... _sexually._ ” She elaborated. 

“No foul.” Klaus agreed. He was all for killing children when it served a purpose _—or when you’re having a bad day—_ but he drew the line at that. There was nothing appealing about _that._

“And tell your men...” Rebekah warned, eyes darting to Freya for a moment, “and _puppets_ to not get in my way. I am not in a good mood and I’m not fond enough of any of them to guarantee their lives.” She reached for Sage then, and started to steer the girl away. 

“Rebekah.” Klaus called from behind her. 

She stopped, not turning to look at her brother and forgetting that now, at the very least, Sage could hear what they were saying since she had pulled one arm from her ear and was holding onto it. “What’s the worst you can do to me, Niklaus? Another dagger in the chest? After all this time even that does not scare me anymore.” 

“Sister.” His voice was softer now... no threat, not a tyrant speaking to someone he needed to keep in check. A brother, speaking to his baby sister of a thousand years. 

“You touched Stefan’s family.” As fate would have it, it was at that moment that Matt walked onto the compound. She was beyond care, however and turned to face her brother. “Do you understand what you did? You touched Stefan’s family.” 

“I just need his brother. I will not harm the child.” Klaus replied honestly. The things he needed were simple. _Damon Salvatore, Katerina Petrova. The new doppelgänger, wherever she is being hidden._

And if that happened in the next four days which was the full moon, that would be even better. It was about damn time he broke the hybrid curse, after locating the moon stone. 

“Well, obviously you did not communicate your intentions to your men if Alistair’s actions were anything to go by.” Rebekah accused, still not lenient with him. 

“Shall I make a public service announcement?” Klaus teased, waving his arms out wide like a ruler speaking to his kingdom. 

“That won’t be necessary. I will personally hand over the girl to her father. The only reason I brought her back is because I know you need her in order to get something. I’d be halfway into the next state if I hadn’t considered you. Don’t make me regret it.” She warned, turned around and tugged on Sage’s arm. “Come, Sage, let’s go.” 

“He killed Marcellus.” Klaus offered as explanation, sighing deeply. 

Rebekah froze in her tracks. “What?” She turned slowly, confusion evident on her features. 

“Damon Salvatore. That’s his name. After years of hunting down a shadow, I found the only connection he has. Stefan. It wounds me to—“ 

“Then you shall do nothing.” She surprises herself by saying. Several times she had thought of killing whoever had killed Marcel but now, it turned out the exception to her quest for revenge, was Stefan. _What a weakness to have. What a damn shame._ “Do you intend to harm Stefan to avenge Marcel? For my sake?” 

“For **our** sake.” Klaus stressed. 

“Do not lie to yourself. And don’t lie to me, Niklaus. I see through you. I spent my childhood watching you. You can’t deceive me.” She yelled, then took a breath to calm down, whispering in a complete U-turn of octaves, “Stefan was family.” 

“His brother killed _mine_.” Klaus argued. 

“Stefan... chose me.” It hurt her to say it, hurt her more to say it with Matt around. The fact that she had chances to tell the human prior to this and chose not to, was not lost on her. It seemed their relationship was doomed before it even started. All the better, because she didn’t have the emotional energy to love and lose again. “Marcel chose power. If I had to toss a coin and pick one, I’d pick saving Stefan’s family—everyone in it— over getting revenge for Marcel any day so if you really are doing this for me, reassess your strategy.” She finished, grabbing Sage’s arm and walking off. 

“And you have exactly a week from today to undagger Elijah or tell me where he is, or that’s it for us.” She threatened over her shoulder, smirking as the cluster vampires parted for her to pass. 

“You would pick Elijah over—“ Klaus called from behind her. 

“No one.” She had the good sense to ignore him but she couldn’t help being affected by the pain she heard in his voice. _Broken and demented, but he was still hers, always and forever._

She turned around once again. —she was getting sick of it already— to say to him, needing to reassure him. “I would not exchange you for Elijah or vice versa. I just want my brother back. Both of them. Always and forever.” 

And she was glad when this time, she was able to leave the room without anyone stopping her. 

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

**_[|Meanwhile, in Mystic Falls.|]_**

“I’m coming with you.” Damon says stubbornly for what felt like the millionth time that day. 

Bonnie was going to the tomb where the vampires were being kept —where Katherine was being kept— with Luka, to try and get his sire out of there. All day he had eavesdropped on the conversation between the two witches about what strategy they would use and how things will work out so they can release Katherine alone. 

And all day he had been trying, every chance he got, to tell her that he was coming with her. 

“No, you’re not.” She says tiredly, flicking through her grimoire lazily before shoving it into her small backpack. She was tired of having the same argument a million times in one day. She didn’t remember Damon being this stubborn ten years ago. Another thing he did an excellent job of hiding from her, apparently. 

“Try and stop me.” Damon says, determined to win this round. 

“Look, I’m channeling Luka to open a door created by a possibly misguided Bennett witch from what my information tells me. I’m going to be stressed and worried enough already and having you there is not going to help me _in any way_ so please... I’m actually begging you, stay here.” Bonnie tried to reason. She realized, after the first few times, persuasion works better than force when it comes to dealing with Damon. 

“Bonnie, you can’t...” 

“Find her.” She turned to the man now with determined eyes. “Find the doppelgänger. Let’s not forget that she’s also part of the deal. You and Stefan are the only ones who know what she looks like if she’s supposed to look like the spitting image of your sire.” She rubbed her temples. 

“Find her. You bring the human here using every tool you have from your decades of doing what you do, and I’ll bring her vampire counterpart. We have three more days and the sooner we wrap this up, the sooner Sage gets to come home.” 

“Alright... but afterwards...” Damon gave in. 

“Afterwards, after we get Sage out safely, let’s talk.” 

“Just talk?” The vampire smirked, brows raised suggestively. 

“For starters, yes.” She indulged him. 

“I’ll take that offer.” He says, then as an afterthought, “Be safe.” 

“Always.” She put the last of her candles in her bag, then looked up at the vampire who was shamelessly staring at her. “Damon...” she started to say, then stopped. “never mind.” 

“Come on, you started, finish it.” He prompted. 

“I don’t mean to worry you and I don’t want what I’m saying to affect anything but...” she paused, fidgeting. “I saw something. While keeping a surveillance on Sage. Klaus knows you by name. He also knows your relationship with stefan.” 

Damon went ashen. “No... don’t tell me— I’m the reason why—“ 

“Or he just needed the doppelgänger and your sire, and knew you have the expertise to achieve that. This is not the time to beat yourself up over what may or may not have happened.” She tried to dissuade him from blaming himself. 

“Still...” 

“He’s not going to harm Sage.” She says firmly, leaving her bag at the foot of the bed and getting closer to him. The last thing she wanted, was a disoriented Damon going out to look for the doppelgänger. 

“What?” 

“He’s not going to harm her —for now— but I don’t know if that will change if we don’t meet his demands.” 

“What are you..?” He was still confused. It had been pure speculation between them that Klaus was involved but now, listening to her, it was obvious she had confirmed it now. Which meant his initial fears were real. 

“He seems to be fond of your brother.” Bonnie provided somberly. That fact, still shocked her. Hearing the blonde known as Rebekah call Stefan family, had come as a surprise to her and somehow, she was still afraid to ask Stefan. It felt like the wrong timing to open a possible can of worms. Especially for her best friend. 

“You’re saying Klaus... _The_ Klaus Mikaelson is fond of my brother.?” The vampire asked incredulously. 

“I didn’t know how to bring it up but from what I heard, he was uhmmm... pretty close to them.” 

“No.” Damon denied. 

“Yes.” Bonnie reaffirmed with a casual roll of her eyes. “Look, he may like your brother but he knows you killed his ... whoever that is, and he wants your head.” 

“Would you care, if I get killed?” He heard himself asking, childishly. 

“Would I care?” She scoffed, incredulous, and grabbed her bag from where it lay at the foot of the bed, walking towards the door. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You want me to tell you that if you somehow got yourself killed I wouldn’t be able to move on, that I’ll mourn forever...” 

“Don’t go.” Damon wrapped his large arms around her from behind, halting her progress, her hand on the door knob. 

“I’m not falling for you again, Damon.” She sighed, trying to wiggle out of his arms. 

“Maybe we’re both not ready for love yet, Meli’āki, but we care about each other... and we want each other. That won’t change just because—“ 

“Yes, I’d care if you got killed. Now let me go.” She admitted, still fussing up. 

“I can’t recall —in all the decades I’ve been alive— anyone loving and caring about me genuinely, Bonnie... that’s why I keep clinging to you so shamelessly, jokingly asking you to seriously consider staying with me.” Slowly, he released his hold on her and took a step, then two back. “So please... don’t leave on my account. I’ll sit quietly if that’s what you want, I just want to be with you before you leave.” 

Bonnie opened her mouth to speak and the wind went right out of her lungs as the door pushed open and nearly knocked her out if not for Damon’s quick reflex. 

“Ready to leave?” Luka asked, unfazed at the sight before him, Damon pinning Bonnie to the wall right next to the door, the witch looking up at the vampire with something akin to gratitude in her eyes. 

“Yeah.” Bonnie replied and gently pushed Damon away from her. 

“I really don’t like you, you know that?” The vampire asked as Bonnie walked out the room. 

“I know now.” Luka replied, not in the least bit bothered by that. 

Ooooooooooo000ooooooooooO 

_Phasmatos Salves Nas Ex Malon,Terra Mora Vantis Quo Incandis, Et Vasa Quo Ero Signos._

Three hours later, Bonnie Bennett stood at the center of a pentagon, four torches representing earth, air, fire and water lit around her. 

She may have skipped an essential part of her plan. Opening the tomb had not been a problem. At least, up until that point, their plan had worked. She had channeled Luka to counter the spell on the tomb. 

And then the jarring reality came. Vampires that have been locked in the tomb for over a century without being fed meant they were all mummified. None will be able to come in unless someone went in to get them. 

Summoning spells will not work, throwing a blood bag in there will only create more work for them as they’ll now have to fight all twenty seven hungry and vengeful vampires. She sighed, flipping through her grimoire for a better solution. 

“Can I go in then?” Caroline asked as she walked in. She had been in her room all day, listening quietly to the respective conversations going on around the house. She knew, even before Bonnie and Luka left, that they would need someone to go in and bring Katherine out and also knew that they would need blood to wake her up. 

She chose to wait for her husband and brother-in-law to leave the house in search of the doppelgänger before she also left. 

“No.” Bonnie replied instinctively, looking up at her best friend with a frown on her face. She had so many questions but she resolved to ask them later. 

“Bonnie, I’m not asking if it’s safe for me to go in there. I’m asking if you have a spell that can allow me to get in there once I’m in.” 

Bonnie nodded somberly and Caroline took that as her cue. “No wait!” The witch screamed, barely managing to stop her friend in time. 

“What is it?” 

“Leave the blood bag out here. It’s better that way. Accidents happen. If you meet unforeseen circumstances in there, at least your odds are better against desiccated vampires than ones that are awake.” 

“Right.” Caroline agreed, tossing the blood bag back at them before heading back in. She had only caught a glimpse of the image of the vampire from one of Stefan’s diaries a long time ago but she could identify her, she was sure of it. 

Ten minutes later, the blonde was standing at the other side of the barrier, carting a desiccated Katherine with her. 

“Forgive me.” Bonnie whispered to no one in particular before gripping Luka’s arm and they started to chant the spell. 

_Phasmatos siprum, Emnis abortum,fasila Quisa exilum San._

_Phasmatos siprum, Emnis abortum,fasila Quisa exilum San._

The seal on the tomb was broken, allowing Caroline and the mummy Katherine to come out, and in the same instant, Luka fell to the ground. 

**Author's Note:**

> Do let me know what you think.


End file.
